Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition delves into printmaking, impact of Karamu Artists Inc.

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Graphic arts played a pivotal role at Cleveland’s Karamu House, one of the nation’s preeminent Black community art centers. Now the Cleveland Museum of Art is set to focus on the impact that printmaking had on Karamu, the city it serves and the country at large.

“Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community” highlights print work created at one of the country’s best-known sites for Black American culture since opening in 1915.

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The exhibition, which begins Sunday, March 23, and will run through mid-August, takes place at the museum located at 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland. Access to the display, in 101A-B Prints and Drawings, is free with admission to the museum.

Most notable in its modern era for its theater program, Karamu housed a printmaking workshop starting in the 1930s. Artists and community members alike – which included a young Clevelander, poet and social advocate by the name of Langston Hughes – could learn printmaking techniques.

“This exhibition has been in progress for a while,” said Britany Salsbury, curator of prints and drawings for the Cleveland Museum of Art.

“It came together out of a desire to better understand the works in our collection by these artists,” she added.

“In conducting that research, we learned they were part of a collective and conceived of their work as part of a bigger project about the art community, which was really fascinating.”

Exploration of print led to the foundation of Karamu Artists Inc., a group that counted some of the most recognized Black printmakers of the era – including Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles Sallée and William E. Smith – as alumni.

Salsbury learned that art historian Erin Benay – associate professor of art history and distinguished scholar in public humanities at Case Western Reserve University – was working on a peripheral project looking at the history of printmaking in Cleveland.

“Karamu Artists Inc. came together over a shared interest in the democratic possibilities of the graphic arts,” said Benay, co-curator of the exhibition, in a press release. Print (and accessibility thereto) was seen as a fundamental component to democracy by the artists.

After a joint printmaking workshop on race and identity during the WPA (Works Progress Administration) era, the two ended up collaborating on what is now the Karamu exhibition.

Salsbury was struck by “how tied in the artists were to everything going on in the art world of their time, but how little attention they received despite that.”

She said that they get mentioned a lot in the context of the WPA and the Harlem Renaissance, but beyond that, recognition was sparse.

“It was shocking to me that there had never been a project that really looked into their work in depth,” she said.

“A few of the members like Hughie Lee-Smith were able to build a more of a reputation in the years following their work together.”

For others, including Zell [Rozelle] Ingram, there was essentially nothing written on his work. Ingram had made a pivot from sculpture and painting into printmaking with great effect.

Salsbury agreed that though Karamu is widely known for its theater endeavors, but printmaking was a core part of the organization’s identity.

“What these artists were doing was so closely tied to what artists in major art world centers like New York and Chicago were doing at the time,” Salsbury said. “And yet, they just weren’t getting the same kind of credit for it.”

To that end, “Karamu Artists Inc.” presents more than 50 prints created by the group’s members – including works from the museum’s collection alongside important loans from local and national institutions. It situates that creativity within the broader context of what was happening nationally.

The exhibition zeroes in on accessibility, techniques and materials – along with the community-based spirit that carried the organization into the 1960s and ’70s, when racial unrest brought leading artists, poets and activists to Karamu House.

Some of what they were doing was “way ahead of their time,” Salsbury said. She added that the artists in the Karamu collective were “thinking more broadly about printmaking techniques, what art should be thinking about, their place in the art world and redefining that.”

While Karamu Artists Inc. itself has been long disbanded, a new generation of Black artists in Cleveland has inspired and fostered the development of a Black art market in the city. As for Karamu House itself, it’s still bringing people together as its Swahili name suggests.

Complementary programming for this Cleveland Museum of Art exhibition is robust:

“Pop Up! Open Studio: Power of Print” opens daily 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. from Tuesday, March 25, to Friday, March 28, in the Ames Family Atrium. It is free, no ticket required.

“Impressions/Expressions: Reconsidering Black American Graphics and Multiples, The Robert P. Madison Family Distinguished Lecture in African and African American Art” happens 2 to 3 p.m. Saturday, March 29. Richard J. Powell, distinguished professor of art and art history at Duke University will speak in the museum’s Gartner Auditorium. Free, with a required ticket.

“Lunchtime Lecture: Exploring Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community” takes place noon to 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 1. Britany Salsbury, curator of prints and drawings at the Cleveland Museum of Art, offers a talk at Gartner Auditorium. Free.

“From Prints to Power: Karamu House and the Black Art Market in Cleveland, Distinguished Scholars in the Humanities” happens 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 9, at Cleveland Public Library’s Main Library in the Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium. The lecture features Erin Benay, associate professor of art history and distinguished scholar in the public humanities at Case Western Reserve University. Reception to follow. Free, with a required ticket.

“Karamu House: A Turning Point” happens 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 21, in Gartner Auditorium. The intimate stage production includes poetry, prose, music and movement – featuring work from Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone and contemporary artists. Free, no ticket required.

A “Karamu Artists Inc. Exhibition Catalogue” includes works from the museum’s collection as well as important loans from local and national institutions. The richly illustrated publication features essays by leading scholars of Black American art.

A limited-edition print entitled “Foundations of Wonder” by Antwoine Washington will be available in conjunction with the exhibition. It will be available from Zygote Press and in the Cleveland Museum of Art store at the opening of the exhibition.