"Lovers"
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.
Artwork Details
- 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
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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Ernest Crichlow
1936–37
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