The Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio is an important center for Black artists in the USA. The Cleveland Museum of Art is dedicated to prints created there in the 1930s and 1940s: Karamu Artists Inc: Printmaking, Race and Community opens March 23.
In 1915, the Neighborhood Association was founded in the Karamu House in Cleveland, Ohio, where people could meet and exchange ideas peacefully, regardless of skin color or religion. The guiding principle of the institution was a quote from the constitution: »All men are created equal«. It soon became clear that art was the decisive binding agent. At first it was plays, later a workshop was set up in which artists and members with no artistic experience could experiment with various printmaking processes. The participating artists, including Elmer W. Brown, Hughie Lee-Smith, Charles Sallée and William E. Smith, came together to form Karamu Artists Inc. Their works in the spirit of the Harlem Renaissance are among the most important prints by Black artists of the 1930s and 1940s. The Cleveland Museum of Art is now honoring their work in the exhibition Karamu Artists Inc: Printmaking, Race and Community. It runs from March 23 to August 17 and presents over 50 exhibits.
The word Karamu comes from the Swahili language and means »place of joyful gathering«. In 1982, Karamu House was added to the US National Register of Historic Places. Today, the institution continues to focus on professional theater productions and arts education for all.
The National Gallery in London is dedicating its first major solo show in the United Kingdom to Mexican artist José María Velasco. The polymath, famous in his homeland, was also renowned in Europe and the USA in the 19th century. José María Velasco. A View of Mexico opens on March 29.
Fedele Friede is the eighth winner of the Horst Janssen Graphics Prize of the Claus Hüppe Foundation. The prize is accompanied by an exhibition that opens on March 28: The Hamburger Kunsthalle is showing der saum löst sich (the hem comes loose).
