This season, I’m rounding up stories about modern artists in love, in lust, in relationships— digging into these individuals, see how their liaisons, marriages, affairs, and connections played in or on their respective works of art, and how, if anything, they affected art history as we know it. I, for one, believe that it’s time for Modern Love.

Today: we’re enjoying the story of one supremely confident couple, incredibly supportive of one another and individually talented, two makers who epitomized the explosion of creativity that was the Harlem Renaissance, and who helped shape American art. Meet Jacob Lawrence and Gwendolyn Knight.