Porgy
Medium
lithograph
Dimensions
image: 25 × 18.5 cm · sheet: 48.2 × 31.5 cm
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland
Accession Number
1929.430
Tags
maleMay Show
About this artwork
For his skill in lithographs such as this, Richard Beatty was hired as an instructor when Karamu formed a graphic arts program around 1933. While teaching himself lithography at night, Beatty portrayed theater and cabaret scenes using dense, expressive lines from a waxy crayon. He described Porgy (1927) as his favorite print and was inspired after seeing a play by the same name at the Ohio Theatre. Elongated and slumping figures convey the narrative’s emotional climax, about a man’s attempts to ...