Supermarket—Produce

The bright array of fruits and vegetables lends uncommon energy to a familiar shopping scene. Jacob Lawrence captured the action with swaths of color and bold shapes, transforming particulars into generalized outlines that invite the recognition of shared experience. The elevated perspective highlights the abundance of produce and variety of movement that characterize such a space. This work is one of a series of supermarket scenes that Lawrence made. They capture his fascination with supermarkets’ scale and atmosphere, even as he noted the contrast to his childhood memories of “small, neighborhood stores.”