Lawrence studied art at New York’s Utopia Children’s House and the Harlem Community Art Center in the early 1930s. At the art center, he was introduced to paper-covered boards and tempera paints, which dry quickly and tend to produce flat, matte surfaces. These inexpensive art materials became mainstays of his work for more than 60 years. Showing a visually impaired couple walking down a sidewalk surrounded by frolicking children, Blind Beggars exhibits Lawrence’s characteristic concern for social issues. He produced the painting while working for the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. (http://metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/488144?sortBy=Relevance&who=Lawrence%2c+Jacob%24Jacob+Lawrence&ft=*&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=3)