Ambulance Call

In the 1940s, the Harlem Hospital was one of the few facilities in New York City that admitted black patients; consequently, ailing blacks waited significantly longer to get medical treatment than did their white counterparts. In this Harlem street scene, ambulance attendants lift a stretcher carrying an ailing figure covered in white sheets. A paramedic stands by, monitoring the victim. Surrounding this trio is a densely packed crowd of spectators, whose downcast eyes and sad expressions suggest that they are not anonymous onlookers but rather a close-knit community of neighbors, friends, and family. Ambulance exemplifies Lawrence’s melding of traditional narrative subjects and the visual language of modernism. The schematically rendered figures wear bright, monochromatic clothing. The artist distributed passages of red, blue, yellow, green, and black throughout the picture in a lively, rhythmic pattern.

Title: Ambulance Call

Creator: Jacob Lawrence(1917 - 2000)

Date Created: 1948

Physical Dimension: 61 x 50.8 cm

Type: Painting

Medium: Tempera on board

Courtesy: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Signed: Jacob Lawrence / 48

Museum Location: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

Label Text: In Ambulance Call, an ailing man is carried away on a stretcher as a crowd gathers. The artist painted blocky forms in a bold but limited palette, creating a rhythmic pattern. Lawrence conveyed the sense of community in his Harlem neighborhood by grouping the figures closely together, their individual expressions communicating sadness and concern. He emphasized that his paintings had a universal quality, conveying the human experiences of joy, pain, and community through a focus on African American urban life.