This harrowing scene, ironically titled Lovers, records the brutal attack of a Black woman in her bedroom by a hooded Ku Klux Klan member, one that will undoubtedly escalate to rape. Her flailing arms and legs convey her terror as she struggles with her assailant. A broken, overturned chair already lies defeated in the corner. Beneath the man's white robe Crichlow deliberately shows his fashionably striped pant leg, an indication, he says "that it isn't just a poor man doing this." Although depicting a particular narrative, the artist intended this image to represent more generally the degrading treatment of Blacks at this time throughout the South.
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Artwork Details
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Title:"Lovers"
Artist:Ernest Crichlow (American, 1914–2005)
Date:1938
Medium:Lithograph
Dimensions:14 15/16 × 12 9/16 in. (38 × 31.9 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
Object Number:1999.529.46
Inscription: Inscribed (lower left, in graphite): "Lovers"; signed and dated (lower right, in graphite): Crichlow 38
[G.W. Einstein Co., Inc., New York, until 1991; sold on July 31, 1991 to Williams]; Reba and Dave Williams, New York (1991–99; their gift to MMA)
Bronx. Lehman College Art Gallery of The City University of New York. "Black Printmakers and the W.P.A.," February 23–June 6, 1989, unnumbered cat. (p. 18; lent courtesy the artist) [possibly this edition].
Newark Museum, held jointly at the Equitable Gallery, New York. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 10, 1992–February 28, 1993, no. 22.
Long Beach Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 4–August 8, 1993, no. 22.
Cambridge, England. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 5–December 19, 1993, no. 22.
Albany. New York State Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 5–March 13, 1994, no. 22.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," April 7–June 12, 1994, no. 22.
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," July 12–September 4, 1994, no. 22.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 9–December 4, 1994, no. 22.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 4–February 26, 1995, no. 22.
Charleston. Gibbes Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," March 26–May 21, 1995, no. 22.
Miami Beach. Bass Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 18–August 13, 1995, no. 22.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 10–November 5, 1995, no. 22.
Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 3, 1995–January 28, 1996, no. 22.
Brooklyn Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," February 25–April 22, 1996, no. 22.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," May 17–July 14, 1996, no. 22.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," August 9–October 6, 1996, no. 22.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 1, 1996–January 2, 1997, no. 22.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 31–March 30, 1997, no. 22.
Hamilton, N. Y. Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. "Life Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 10–November 4, 2001, no. 13.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 15.
Alain Locke. The Negro in Art: A Pictorial Record of the Negro Artist and of the Negro Theme in Art. Washington, D.C., 1940, p. 7, ill. p. 120 (unknown edition), calls it "Lover" and dates it 1939.
Marlene Park and Gerald E. Markowitz. New Deal for Art: The Government Art Projects of the 1930s with Examples from New York City & State. Exh. cat., Tyler Art Gallery, State University of New York College of Arts and Sciences, Oswego. Hamilton, N.Y., 1977, p. 87, no. 32, ill. (unknown edition, collection of the artist).
Deirdre L. Bibby. Augusta Savage and the Art Schools of Harlem. Exh. cat., Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. New York, 1988, p. 22, no. 38 (Ed. 28/30, collection of the artist).
Leslie King-Hammond. Black Printmakers and the W.P.A. Exh. cat., Lehman College Art Gallery. Bronx, 1989, pp. 9, 32, ill. p. 18 (Ed. 23/30, collection of the artist), calls it "Lover" in text and "Lovers" in checklist.
Ellen Sragow. "Black Printmakers and the WPA: A Symposium." Tamarind Papers: A Journal of the Fine Print 13 (1990), pp. 73–74, ill. (unknown edition).
Marlene Park. "Lynching and Anti-lynching: Art and Politics in the 1930s." Prospects 18 (1993), p. 350, fig. 18.
Reba and Dave Williams inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 8, 25, 47, no. 22, fig. 6.
Lowery Stokes Sims inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, p. 3.
Leslie King-Hammond inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, p. 17.
Vivien Raynor. "At Yale, Deliberate Images in Black and White." New York Times (May 29, 1994), p. CN14, ill.
Alan G. Artner. "Rare Prints by African-Americans." Chicago Tribune (June 20, 1996), section 5, p. 2.
"Art Exhibit Focuses on Works by Blacks During New Deal." Times-Press (May 30, 1996), p. 11.
Richard J. Powell. Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century. New York, 1997, p. 73, fig. 42.
Gabriel Tenabe. "Crichlow, Ernest." St. James Guide to Black Artists. Ed. Thomas Riggs. Detroit, 1997, p. 123, calls it "Lovers III".
Leslie King-Hammond inOver the Line: The Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence. Ed. Peter T. Nesbett and Michelle DuBois. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection, Washington, D. C. Seattle, 2000, p. 77, fig. 14 (color).
Mary Ann Calo inLife Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Dewey F. Mosby. Exh. cat., Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. Hamilton, N. Y., 2001, p. 13.
Dewey F. Mosby and Jane Seney inLife Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Dewey F. Mosby. Exh. cat., Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. Hamilton, N. Y., 2001, pp. 32–33, 62–63, 67, no. 13, fig. 12.
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 40, no. 15, ill., notes that this work is the artist's last surviving WPA print.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 35.
Bram Dijkstra. American Expressionism: Art and Social Change 1920–1950. Exh. cat., Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio. New York, 2003, p. 140, pl. 96, lists it in the collection of Reba and Dave Williams.
Dave H. Williams. Small Victories: One Couple's Surprising Adventures Building an Unrivaled Collection of American Prints. Boston, 2015, p. 107, fig. 6 (color).
John Wilson (American, Roxbury, Massachusetts 1922–2015 Brookline, Massachusetts)
1955
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