The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 13, 2025
Tool Shed
1939
(American, 1911–1987)
Image: 21.5 x 26.3 cm (8 7/16 x 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 30.5 x 35 cm (12 x 13 3/4 in.)
Catalogue raisonné: Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 22
Location: Not on view
Did You Know?
This print was included in a 1942 exhibition of Karamu House artists organized at New York’s Associated American Artists Galleries and sponsored by a committee including cultural figures such as Langston Hughes, Alain Locke, and Carl Van Vechten. The show traveled to Philadelphia’s Temple University and brought national attention to the Karamu House printmaking workshop.Description
This linocut was created by Fred Carlo while he was involved in the printmaking workshop at Karamu House, a community art center founded in 1915 that is still active in Cleveland today. Created by carving into a smooth linoleum block, linocut is an accessible technique that was favored at Karamu for its accessibility and democracy. Carlo used it to evocatively depict the lives of Black Clevelanders—here, as he described, a view “from a neighbor’s back porch.”- 2022(Lusenhop Fine Art, Cleveland Heights, OH), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OHJune 6, 2022-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Exhibit by Karamu Artists. Exh. Cat. New York: Associated American Artists, 1942.Salsbury, Britany. "Karamu Artists Inc. and Printmaking in the WPA Era." In Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community, Britany Salsbury and Erin Benay, 16-55. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 21-23, no. 3
- Exhibit by Karamu Artists. Associated American Artists Galleries, New York (January 7–22, 1942); Temple University, Philadelphia (February 2–16, 1942).
- {{cite web|title=Tool Shed|url=false|author=Fred Carlo|year=1939|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.52