The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Print in grainy black ink streaking across white paper and expressively depicting three people dressed in tutus, their hair in buns. The one on our left sits in a high chair, facing us and bathed in light. The other two run off the page to our right, cast in shadow and progressively more abstracted. What appears like a building with four windows rises behind a wall in the background, streaked with light.

Intermission

1929

Richard Beatty

(American, 1899–1961)
America, Ohio, Cleveland
lithograph
Image: 19 x 23.8 cm (7 1/2 x 9 3/8 in.); Sheet: 34 x 40.7 cm (13 3/8 x 16 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 1930.160
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Theater was immensely popular in Cleveland when Richard Beatty made this print.

Description

For his skill in lithographs such as this, Richard Beatty was hired as an instructor when Karamu formed a graphic arts program around 1933. While teaching himself lithography at night, Beatty portrayed theater and cabaret scenes using dense, expressive lines with a waxy crayon.
  • Richard Beatty Entry Card to 1930 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives. archive.org
    Salsbury, Britany, and Erin E. Benay. Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025. Reproduced: p. 77, no. 36
  • Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-August 17, 2025).
    The May Shows of the Past. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 5-July 24, 1963).
    Retrospective Twenty-fifth Anniversary May Show. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 13-February 14, 1943).
    Prints by Cleveland Artists. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 10-October 9, 1935).
    The May Show: 12th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 22-June 1, 1930).
  • {{cite web|title=Intermission|url=false|author=Richard Beatty|year=1929|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1930.160