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Asking What Art Can Do Is Not the Same as Knowing

Presented by The Cleveland Museum of Art at The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland OH

Apr 12 2024

Asking What Art Can Do Is Not the Same as Knowing

Artist’s Life #1, 1939. Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915–1999). Lithograph; image: 32.2 x 25.5 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Created by the Federal Art Project, Works Progress Administration, and lent by the Fine Arts Collection of the US General Services Administration, 4230.1942. © Estate of Hughie Lee-Smith / Licensed by VAGA at ARS (Artists Rights Society), New York

Hindsight suggests that Karamu House offered people—from children to professional artists—a space for asking what art can do.

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Was Karamu aware of the profound, affirming difference between asking what art can do and, say, knowing what art does and just doing it? In reply to this question, this talk argues “Yes,” chiefly by reference to the work of children, Hughie Lee-Smith, and another one-time Clevelander, Noah Purifoy.

This lecture is cosponsored by the Department of Art History and Art at Case Western Reserve University.