Dr. Samella Lewis. Joel Elgin Athraigh Printmaking Studio

 

 

SAMELLA LEWIS, born in New Orleans in 1924 is rightfully considered one of the most influential artists/art historians in the United States.

“… As a young artist, she was drawn to subjects as diverse as police brutality against African Americans, comic books, and characters from her older sister's romance novels…”

https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/artists/samella-lewis

She “…became the first African American to receive doctorates in Fine Art and Art History.  Dr. Lewis attended Dillard University, Hampton Institute, and Ohio State University. She taught as a full-time professor at Morgan State University, Florida A&M, State University New York Plattsburgh, California State Dominguez, California State Long Beach, and Scripps College…”

https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2019/03/11/dr-samella-lewis-the-godmother-of-african-american-art/

Dr. Lewis  “…was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, making her a target of government officials who accused her of being a Communist and members of the Ku Klux Klan who shot out windows of her home. Undaunted, she founded a chapter of the NAACP in Plattsburgh.”

https://www.louissternfinearts.com/samella-lewis-bio                                              

“Lewis has changed the landscape of Art History and has become an influential and highly respected voice that has also mentored and bolstered the careers of many African American artists. She is the recipient of a myriad of awards and distinctions and has exhibited in many important galleries and museums.”

http://www.stellajonesgallery.com/samella-lewis

 

I See You

Linocut.  2005

 

Migrants

Linocut. 1968

 “I fight against segregation, discrimination, racism, brutality and depravity because these things deny people their rights as human beings.” -- Samella Lewis. (Credit: Daily Bulletin)

House of Shango

Lithograph. 1992

“The title of this piece is an unmistakable harkening to African roots. Shango is a religious practice with origins in Yoruba (Nigerian) belief, deifying a god of thunder by the same name…”

https://rcwg.scrippscollege.edu/blog/2016/10/02/highlights-of-the-collection-samella-lewis-house-of-shango/

 

First Phase

hand-colored lithograph. 2005

 

Please visit the Athraigh Print Studio at:

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio/

 

https://www.instagram.com/joel_elgin_art_history/

 

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

More on Samella Lewis:

https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2019/03/11/dr-samella-lewis-the-godmother-of-african-american-art/

https://www.louissternfinearts.com/samella-lewis-bio

http://rcwg.scrippscollege.edu/blog/2008/07/09/samella-lewis/

http://www.stellajonesgallery.com/samella-lewis

https://hearnefineart.com/artists/53-samella-lewis/biography/

Hughie Lee-Smith

 

 

 

Hughie Lee-Smith

 

Lee-Smith was born in Eustis, Florida in 1915. Before working with the WPA, he ran track with Jessie Owens and earning a deree from Wayne State, he  began to learn printmaking at the Karamu House in Cleveland. Karamu is Kiswahili for "a place of joyful gathering". Karamu is the oldest, producing African American theatre in the nation but has also historically been a home for printmakers, dancers, actors, and writers.

 

Lee-Smith died in 1999. His prints are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian and the Detroit Institute of Art.

 

As a printmaker, Hughie Lee-Smith is best known for his series, “The Artist's Life" which dictates, his early life in Cleveland during the Great Depression. Check out the subtle description of his life: a policeman beating a worker, closed factories, etc..

 

Lee-Smith was a strong drawer and highly experimental printmaker. We could easily spend this time detailing his range as a printmaker,  but today lets focus on his portraits and mono prints.

 

 

 

 

The Artist's Life No.1, 1939

Lithograph

 

 

 

Untitled (Woman's Head) , 1985

Pencil on paper

 

 

 

Untitled (Head of a Woman), 1970

Monotype

 

 

 

 

Untitled (Head of a Woman), 1970

Monotype

 

 

 

Head of a woman with curly hair , 1969

Monotype

 

 

 

 Untitled (Face and figure study) , 1969

 Monotype

 

Please check out the YouTube Version:

 

 

“Jacob Lawrence: The Life of Toussaint L’Ouverture”. Joel Elgin Athraigh Studio

 

Today's post features the printmaker Jacob Lawrence's series of silk screens depicting Toussaint L’Ouverture, the mastermind behind the Haitian Revolution.

 

 

Jacob Lawrence (1917-2000), is more well known than many of the other printmakers recently featured by Athraigh Studios. We might know his prints in general but let’s take a specific look at his brilliant series, the “Toussaint L'Ouverture.”

 

Content first: Jacob Lawrence is depicting Toussaint L’Ouverture the mastermind behind the Haitian Revolution. In the last years of the 1700’s Toussaint L’Ouverture won independence from Europe, defeated Napoleon’s army, and brought Haiti out of slavery. In 1804, after the people who were then referred to as “slaves” won their freedom by force, Haiti became the first black republic in the West.

 

Form: In 1936, at the age of 21, Jacob Lawrence created 41 paintings of the life of L’Ouverture. In 1986, Lawrence produced 15 silk screens inspired by the original paintings.

 

I’ve included only 3 images from the series for today’s presentation but I encourage you two go to the following link to see the entire series, including a description written by Lawrence of each print.

 

https://www.davidsongalleries.com/artists/modern/jacob-lawrence/toussaint-louverture/

 

 

 

Strategy

Silk screen on Rising two ply rag paper, 1994

Deception

 

 

 

 

General Toussaint L'Ouverture

Silk screen on Bainbridge two ply rag paper, 1986

 

 

 

 

To Preserve Their Freedom

Silk screen on Bainbridge two ply rag paper, 1988

 

Please check out the video of the exhibition:

 

Barbara Jones-Hogu and AfriCOBRA. Joel Elgin Athraigh Studio

 

 

In 1968, printmaker Barbara Jones-Hogu was a founding member of the Chicago group, African Commune of Bad Relevant Artists (AfriCOBRA). The artists of AfriCOBRA made visual, the central ideas of the Black Power movement—self-determination, unity, and black pride.  They agreed to embrace a style that emphasized strong bold colors, flat shape, rhythm, and text to highlight the heroic and beautiful qualities of black lives in America.

 

https://americanart.si.edu/education/oh-freedom/barbara-jones-hogu

 

 

The prints created by Barbara Jones-Hogu, stand as brilliant works of art and at the same time reveal a glimpse into America’s history of embedded racism and the importance of protest.

Land Where My Father Died

Color screenprint on gold-colored Japanese-style laid paper. 1968,

 

“…I feel that racism and fascism played a great deal in my father being successful or not successful in his life, so some of these prints’ ideas and content deal with the fact that we and he were not really free to do whatever we and he really wanted to do and could do due to radical oppression and suppression…”

https://never-the-same.org/interviews/barbara-jones-hogu/

 

 

Nation Time

Color screenprint on gold-colored paper, 1970,

 

“…In Nation Time, a dominant figure leads a black ensemble to rise up against the American flag background. Closer looking reveals that the American flag’s stars are Ku Klux Klan members. In this way, the composition acknowledges how racism is deeply embedded in America, while also inspiring hope of overcoming that truth…”

https://blantonmuseum.org/2020/03/womens-history-month-2020-5womenartists-from-the-blanton-collection/

 

 

 

Be Your Brother's Keeper

Color screenprint, 1971

“…The guns and the lights on them and various actions against and between the military and the protesters caused me to think that we should be our brothers’ keeper…”

https://never-the-same.org/interviews/barbara-jones-hogu/

 

 

Unite (AfriCOBRA)

Color screenprint on ivory wove paper    1971

 

 YouTube Version:

For further information on Barbara Jones-Hogu and AfriCOBRA:

 

https://never-the-same.org/interviews/barbara-jones-hogu/

 

https://www.blackartinamerica.com/index.php/2017/11/16/barbara-jones-hogu-one-of-americas-greatest-artists-has-passed/

 

 

 

Joel Elgin Art Sites:

 

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

Ernest Crichlow: Cinque Gallery. Joel Elgin Athraigh Printmaking Studio

Athraigh Printmaking Studio’s series of small exhibitions continue today with its series of exhibits of African-American printmakers. The issues addressed by these artists are still current. I had not learned of many of these amazing printmakers in school and therefore, sadly, I did not expose my students to them. I hope that by bringing these artists to you now, you might have a better understanding of the long battle against racism, artists of color have fought and continue to fight today.

 

The Cinque Gallery was founded in 1969 by artists Romare Bearden (1911–1988), Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005), and Norman Lewis (1909–1979) to exhibit the work of both new and established African–American artists, and to provide community educational programs. The gallery was named after Joseph Cinqué, the leader of the Amistad slaveship mutiny of the 1830s. For more than three decades, Cinque sponsored more than 300 exhibitions in a number of New York City venues, as well as regional travelling exhibitions before closing in 2004.

https://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/expanding-the-legacy-new-collections-on-african-american-art/cinque-gallery-records

 

 

1. Cinque Gallery brochure

Date: 1959-1981

Rendering of the Amistad, slave ship on which Joseph Cinqué led the historical uprising.

Cinque Gallery. Cinque Gallery brochure, 1959-1981. Cinque Gallery records, 1959-2010. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

 

Today’s exhibit will feature Ernest Crichlow (1914–2005) who describes his art:

“… I think I know now that this is valid and this is me and this is all that really counts. As I say, the styles will go by and I will hope that I'll have a place and that is all you can do…”

https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/interviews/oral-history-interview-ernest-crichlow-11459

 

2. Untitled,

oil on masonite, circa 1942

 

3. Lovers

lithograph, 1938

…interior scene with Ku Klux Klansman struggling with African American woman in a bedroom.

 

  

4. Untitled

aquatint, 1988

5. Waiting

lithograph, 1965

…a lone child peering through a barbed wire fence.

 

For more on Ernest Crichlow, please go to:

 

https://beardenfoundation.org/cinque-artists-program/

 

https://www.aaa.si.edu/exhibitions/expanding-the-legacy-new-collections-on-african-american-art/cinque-gallery-records

 

https://pffcollection.com/artists/ernest-crichlow/

 

If you wish to view higher res images of this or any of the past articles please visit the Athraigh Print Studio:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio/

 

YouTube Version:

 

Elizabeth Catlett. Joel Elgin Athraigh Printmaking Studio

 

Please enjoy this short exhibition of prints and drawings by Elizabeth Catlett.

 

Elizabeth Catlett was born in 1915, in Washington, D.C. She was an advocate for social change in the U.S. and Mexico until she passed away in 2012 at age 96. Her prints are in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum, in New York, the Baltimore Museum of Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

 

 

 

1. Elizabeth Catlett

"Fiesta"

color screenprint

 

 

 

2. Elizabeth Catlett

I have given the world my songs,

 from "I am the Negro Woman" series, 1946-1947

Linocut

 

3. Elizabeth Catlett

Prissy. 1979

Lithograph on cream wove paper

 

 

 

4.Elizabeth Catlett

Untitled (Freedom). 1998

From the Freedom or Slavery: The Paul Robeson Portfolio

Color lithograph on cream wove paper

 

 

 

5.Elizabeth Catlett

Young Woman.

Drawing

 

 

 

6.Elizabeth Catlett

Singing Their Songs 1992

Lithograph on paper

 

 

7.Elizabeth Catlett

Bread (Derecho Alimentarse). 1952.

Linoleum cut on wove paper,

 

 

YouTube Version:

 

Joel Elgin Art Sites:

Website:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh

 

Margaret Taylor Burroughs. Joel Elgin Athraigh Printmaking Studio

 

Margaret Taylor Burroughs was born on November 1, 1917 in Saint Rose, Louisiana.

 

She took earned a B.E. in Art Education and an M.A., in 1948 from the Art Institute of Chicago. Margaret was a printmaker who carved and printed linoleum block prints centered around images of African American Culture.

 

Margaret and her husband, Charles founded the Ebony Museum of Chicago, later called the of African American History in 1961.

In 1975 President Gerald Ford awarded her the  President’s Humanitarian Award.  She died in Chicago on November 21, 2010.

 

 

 

1. Black Venus, 1957

Linocut

 

 

 

2. Harriet Tubman 2001

lithograph

 

 

 

3. Folksinger 1957

Linocut

 

 

 

4. Birthday Party 1957

Linocut

 

 

 

5. Family 1963

Linocut

 

 

 

6. Black Madonna 1957

Linocut

 

 

YouTube Version:

 

 

 

Joel Elgin Art Sites:

 

Website:

https://www.joelelginathraighprintstudio.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/joel.elgin.athraighprintstudio/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/athraigh