The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontally oriented etching on wove paper depicts a Black woman with medium-dark skin tone in profile, facing our right. Seen from the chest up, she wears a light-colored sleeveless top with her dark hair gathered at the back. Dense cross-hatching creates deep shadows across her face and shoulder. A background of textured, vertical and diagonal lines surrounds her, filling the frame with energetic, streaking strokes.

Missouri C

1972

Charles White

(American, 1918–1979)
America
etching on wove paper
Image and Plate: 49.8 x 90.8 cm (19 5/8 x 35 3/4 in.); Sheet: 63.2 x 99.4 cm (24 7/8 x 39 1/8 in.)
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland 2024.158
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Charles White mentored a generation of Black artists, including Kerry James Marshall and David Hammons.

Description

Charles White was known for depicting Black experiences in America and using his art making to address racial and economic injustice. In the context of struggles with his health, White moved to LA in the mid-1950s and began to explore printmaking. He described being inspired to create this print by an image in a book titled Photographs of the Detroit People (1970). The image showed a passenger on a steamboat that ferried people to Detroit’s Boblo Island amusement park at the time. Devoid of the context of this leisure activity, the subject of White’s print reads ambiguously, especially given the woman’s offhanded gaze and the strikingly sketched lines in the background.
  • ?–2024
    Arthur Primas, TX, sold to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
    December 9, 2024–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Deupi, Jill, ed. Charles White: A Little Higher. Exh. Cat. Coral Gables, FL: Lowe Art Museum, 2022. Mentioned: pp. 108, 56-57; Reproduced: p. 109, 54-55
  • Charles White: A Little Higher. Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL (November 10, 2022 – February 26, 2023); Hickory Museum of Art, Hickory, NC (March 18, 2023 – July 30, 2023); Cincinnati Art Museum (November 10, 2023 – February 25, 2024).
  • {{cite web|title=Missouri C|url=false|author=Charles White|year=1972|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2024.158