Label
Mural of vitreous enamel on steel. Games—the first large-scale mural ever completed by Jacob Lawrence—depicts a dense, rhythmic collage of athletes and cheering spectators in the vivid colors and graphic forms that are hallmarks of the artist’s paintings and prints. Lawrence is among the best-known 20th-century Black American painters and Games is considered one of the most historically significant artworks in King County Public Art Collection.
Games consists of 10 vitreous enamel panels, which were made with the assistance of Dave Berfield, a highly skilled porcelain enamel fabricator who worked side by side with Lawrence to transfer his original drawing to metal. Powdered glass was poured into the outline for each individual color, then the panels were fired in a kiln where the heat fused the colored glass to the metal. The artwork was originally created for the Kingdome sports facility, but when the stadium was demolished in 2000, the mural was deinstalled and loaned to the Seattle Convention Center for public display.
Courtesy of the King County Public Art Collection Honors Program and 4Culture