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Artwork Page for My Son! My Son!

Details / Information for My Son! My Son!

My Son! My Son!

1941
(American, 1913–1997)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
linocut
Image: 19.7 x 13.7 cm (7 3/4 x 5 3/8 in.); Sheet: 28.5 x 22.7 cm (11 1/4 x 8 15/16 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1941.122
© William E. Smith
Catalogue raisonné: Teller 8; Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 97
Edition: 25
Location: 101A Prints & Drawings
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

William E. Smith frequently depicted the tender bond between parent and child.

Description

This print by William E. Smith was one of the first by any Black American artist to enter the CMA’s collection. It was purchased from the museum’s May Show, an annual exhibition highlighting regional contemporary art. Karamu Artists Inc. used this juried display to establish a reputation locally that they were then able to leverage into further opportunities. The praise that their prints received was widely noted at a time when Black artists were otherwise unrepresented in museums; as a critic for Cleveland’s historically Black newspaper, the Call and Post, noted, “A feeling of deep racial pride was mine as I noticed the names of [members of Karamu Artists Inc. in the galleries].”
Vertically oriented print in black ink of an adult holding a baby, both with dark skin tones. The adult, sitting, faces us loosely holding the baby under the arms with both hands and looking down. The baby looks toward their left hand, held in the adult's hand. Both are detailed with white lines emerging from a black background, shadows cast over their right side. Wavy lines with cross-hatching sway up behind the adult's left elbow.

My Son! My Son!

1941

William E. Smith

(American, 1913–1997)
America, Ohio, Cleveland

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