The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Leaning Chimneys

1938–39

William E. Smith

(American, 1913–1997)
linocut
Image: 23.1 x 27.7 cm (9 1/8 x 10 7/8 in.); Sheet: 30.4 x 40.6 cm (11 15/16 x 16 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2022.53
© William E. Smith
Catalogue raisonné: Teller 7; Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 91
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 William E. Smith 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. Smith used it to evocatively depict the lives of Black Clevelanders—here, as he described, forms of chimneys that “speak for the people huddled around the hidden stoves below.”
  • 2022
    (Lusenhop Fine Art, Cleveland Heights, OH), sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    June 6, 2022-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Exhibit by Karamu Artists. Exh. Cat. New York: Associated American Artists, 1942.
  • Exhibit by Karamu Artists. Associated American Artists Galleries, New York (January 7–22, 1942); Temple University, Philadelphia (February 2–16, 1942).
  • {{cite web|title=Leaning Chimneys|url=false|author=William E. Smith|year=1938–39|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.53