The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 22, 2025

Politics

1940

William E. Smith

(American, 1913–1997)
linocut
Image: 22.3 x 17.3 cm (8 3/4 x 6 13/16 in.); Sheet: 29.5 x 24.1 cm (11 5/8 x 9 1/2 in.)
Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2022.57
© William E. Smith
Catalogue raisonné: Teller 25; Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 108
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

Although William E. Smith frequently addressed social issues in his prints, this linocut is among his most explicit political commentary. Here, Smith focuses on a cluster of men, spotlit in an alley debating politics. The figures’ varied expressions suggest the artist’s disappointment that “the fellow that [talks] the loudest . . . too often controls aspects of our life."
  • 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.
    Salsbury, Britany, and Erin E. Benay. Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025. Reproduced: p. 49, no. 19
  • Exhibit by Karamu Artists. Associated American Artists Galleries, New York (January 7–22, 1942); Temple University, Philadelphia (February 2–16, 1942).
  • {{cite web|title=Politics|url=false|author=William E. Smith|year=1940|access-date=22 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2022.57