The Cleveland Museum of Art is set to debut a new exhibit centered around the Karamu House, one of the U.S.’ most distinguished Black community art centers.
Titled as “Karamu Artists INC.: Printmaking, Race, and Community,” the exhibit pays homage to the Karamu House’s in-house printmaking workshop. First started in the 1930s, the printmaking workshop was a space for artists and community members, including poet Langston Hughes, to learn printmaking techniques.
As the years progressed, the continued exploration led to the creation of Karamu Artists Inc. Composed of artists such as William E. Smith, Charles L. Sallée and Hughie Lee-Smith, Karamu Artists Inc. developed a series of vital prints that helped define several techniques, such as linocut, lithography and etching, and provided some of the most insightful looks into their experiences as Black artists in the 1930s to 1940s.
Set to start its display from March 23 until August 17, the latest exhibit will feature some of these prints. Prints on display include Sallée’s “Swingtime,” Lee-Smith’s “Artist’s Life, No. 1” and Smith’s “My Son! My Son!.” Over 60 prints will be on display in total.
“Together, these works highlight the innovative use of printmaking at Karamu House during the 1930s and 1940s, as well as the ways in which artists there used these processes to create transformative images of Black experiences,” said a spokesperson for the museum per a press release. “Each member of Karamu Artists Inc. used printmaking to represent subjects drawn from their daily lives that were easily relatable to viewers—such as Sallée’s Swingtime, which places the viewer among the crowded tables of Cleveland’s Cedar Gardens, a nightclub known for its inclusivity.”
Located in the Fairfax neighborhood, Karamu House is home to Karamu Artists Inc. and is considered to be one of the oldest producing Black theatres in the nation.
Renamed in 1941 after a Swahili word for “a place of joyful meeting,” the Karamu House was the home of production pieces by notable Harlem Renaissance playwrights.
These playwrights included Shirley Graham Du Bois, Conrad Seiler, Andrew M. Burris and Zora Neale Hurston.
