A Woman’s Work: Selections from the John and Vivian Hewitt Collection of African American Art

On April 15, 1965 in Washington D.C., Elizabeth Catlett was born to two school teachers, John and Mary Catlett. Her father passing before her birth caused her mother to find baseborn work to support her three children. Through this experience, Catlett became deeply acquainted with the everyday hardships of the working-class Black woman. After completing high school, the aspiring visual artist was encouraged by her mother to attend Howard University. This institution provided influential mentorship and ultimately relationships with prominent cultural figures such as Charles Wright, Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence, Aaron Douglas, Frida Kahlo, Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison. Head of a Woman is the epitome of Catlett's artistic catalog. 

By isolating her subject and placing her in the forefront, Catlett invites the viewer to focus on the woman's profound gaze. This act of centralizing the Black woman, who has historically been assigned a marginal role in European and American art, commemorates both Catlett and her subject's strength and self-assurance.

Harlem born painter and printmaker Alvin C. Hollingsworth merges color with fine line work to eloquently express the African-American experience. 

In 1971, Hollingsworth concentrated on a series of paintings and poems intended to serve as “songs of freedom and equality” entitled The Women, a production rooted from an arrangement of interviews with women artists. His desire to amplify the Black woman is exceptionally demonstrated in this exhibit. In both Tomorrow and Waiting # 2, the elongated figures are presented in traditional robe displaying Black women as majestic. Through pyramidal composition shown in Family Tree, Waiting #2, and Tomorrow, Hollingsworth hints toward Italian Renaissance techniques and biblical references while implying ambition, alliance, and advancement for African-Americans

Best known for using imagery as a response to Zora Neale Hurston’s writing, the two pieces in A Woman’s Work demonstrate Ann Tanksley’s range and exceptional eye. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1934, Tanksley displays her remarkable talent impressed by French, Caribbean, and African-American art. 

Supporting her exploration in various mediums, the monotype collage, New Wave, depicts her examination of the correlation between illustrations and graphics. Demonstrated through a row of migrant workers operating on their hands and knees, Tanksley’s Harvest of Shame shows her concern for migrant workers as well as their connection to slave culture. Utilizing artistic techniques, Tanksley emphasizes composition, subject, and narrative. The distinct diagonal between the green foliage and the red soil accentuates the row of women at work.

Ernest Crichlow was born in Brooklyn, New York, to immigrants from Barbados. His father, a plasterer and brick mason who duplicated comic strips, catalyzed his desire for artistic expression. Crichlow’s early gravitation towards creativity conjoined with working alongside notable artists such as Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston, Aaron Douglas and Romare Bearden, swiftly developed him into a prominent figurative painter. Crichlow challenged political and social issues while simultaneously expressing the quotidian lives of those in his Brooklyn neighborhood. This merging of influences is commonly depicted in his works. 

Crichlow often uses barbed wires, railings, or banisters to evoke entrapment, a composition that is apparent in his piece, Waiting. Barbed wire attempts to confine a young girl implying limitations have emerged, however, through her gaze, and with her mind, she transcends barriers.