Available Works or Citations from Cleveland Museum of Art
Salle, who in 1933 became the first African American to graduate from the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art), specialized in portraiture, a genre in which he excelled. “Some people are an inspiration,” the artist disclosed, and that must have included Anna, whom he portrayed sympathetically. Sallee not only accurately described the sitter’s physiognomy, but he…
After teaching at Karamu House, Charles Sallee went on to become the first African American graduate of the Cleveland School (now Institute) of Art, earning his degree in 1938. Initially focused on painting and printmaking, he subsequently launched a distinguished professional career in interior design. Bedtime is the artist’s most famous image, having earned national renown when it was featured…
Blue Revel was inspired by visits to Cleveland’s Globe Theatre on Woodland Avenue, where a group of faculty members from the Cleveland School of Art had rented a box. Schreckengost exhibited this painting in the 1931 May Show at the Cleveland Museum of Art, alongside his Cocktails and Cigarettes punch bowl.
Charles Elmer Harris developed his own distinctive form of abstraction during the second half of the twentieth century. This drawing dates for the artist spent working at Karamu House, an African American cultural center located in Cleveland’s Fairfax neighborhood. The work features a hybrid of rhythmic, angular forms, suggesting the influence of jazz music and African art on Harris. The…
Muslim minister and civil rights activist Malcolm X (1925-1965) is seen here at a time of growing disillusionment with the Nation of Islam, which he left the following year. Haggins made Malcolm X stand out from Nation of Islam followers through depth of field and focus. The somewhat low viewing angle, contrast in scale with the crowd, and sunlight on…
Lovelace dedicated most of his career to depicting Cleveland’s urban landscape; many of the city’s iconic destinations are visible in the background of My Home Town. His paintings can be read as vibrant and candid commentaries on the city’s sociopolitical and cultural heritage. This work’s panoramic scene combines different local neighborhoods, represented as storefronts. Lovelace said “I painted the way…
A highly skilled printmaker, William Elijah Smith specialized in genre scenes of working-class African-American life in Cleveland. Born in Chattanooga, Smith moved to Cleveland at the age of 13 and became involved in the Karamu House, learning print making and stage design. He studied art at the Huntington Polytechnic Institute, 1933-1934. During his time he began teaching at Karamu House…
In 2001, Cleveland portrait photographer Herb Ascherman began an ambitious personal project to document 105 of Northeast Ohio’s most prominent visual artists in their studios. For this animated portrait, Reverend Albert Wagner (1924 – 2006) — a prolific folk artist of many media – was positioned in front of a fraction of his artworks that completely filled his three-story home…