Printmakers You Should Know: Samella Lewis

Since introducing the Printmakers You Should Know segment on The Fanciful Lobster, we've looked at a lot of printmakers who've worked in different media, whether it's been painting, sculpture, or new media. Today's artist, however, Samella Lewis (1924-), is also a seminal art historian, making profound contributions through her research and writing as well as her visual art.

Samella Lewis. Image courtesy of http://www.scrippscollege.edu/news/arts-and-culture/scripps-college-emerita-of-art-samella-lewis-work-showcased-at-wright-museum-of-african-american-history-and-stella-jones-gallery

Lewis was born in Louisiana, and her childhood was shaped by systemic racism, experiences that would inform her art as an adult. She began studying at Dillard University, where she met one of her seminal mentors, Elizabeth Catlett. She later transferred to Hampton Institute, where she earned her bachelor's degree in 1945. She completed her Master's from Ohio State University in 1948, and in 1951, she finished her PhD in art and art history at Ohio State, becoming the first African American to do so.

As a historian and writer, Lewis is a pioneer. Through her scholarly expertise, she helped to establish the field of African American art as a discipline, bringing critical academic attention to a group of artists that had received little attention. In 1969, along with fellow artist and activist Ruth Waddy, she organized and created Black Artists on Art, the first anthology dedicated to writings from African American artists. 

Image courtesy of http://unitylewis.com/black-artists-on-art-the-book-series/

That same year, Lewis founded Contemporary Crafts, the first art publishing house to be owned by African Americans. In 1976, she founded The International Review of African American Art, a scholarly journal that would become an important resource for educating academics and others about African American art and its contributions to the culture at large. She later wrote the first survey dedicated to African American art in 1978, Art: African American, which spanned from the colonial period through the twentieth century. She has also written 11 other books, including a children's book entitled African American Art for Young People. A professor at Scripps College from 1969 until 1984, Lewis became the college's first tenured African American faculty member, and has remained involved with the school. She has also been an important figure in the museum field, helping to establish institutions such as the Museum of African American Art in Los Angeles.

Samella Lewis, Migrants, 1968, linocut. Image courtesy of http://www.louissternfinearts.com/samella-lewis-2012/

Lewis's work as an artist, both as a printmaker and painter, is equally inspiring. As a printmaker, she has worked in a variety of techniques, including serigraphy, lithography, and linocut printing. Her works take inspiration from her personal experiences as a black woman living in the United States, as well as the American black experience itself throughout history. Stylistically she uses abstraction to create bold images that explore what it means to be black in the United States.

Samella Lewis, The Masquerade, 1994, hand-embellished serigraph. Image courtesy of http://www.thelmaharrisartgallery.com/icons-influences/page-5.php

Samella Lewis, Home Sweet Home, 1969, serigraph. Image courtesy of https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/samella-lewis-1924-home-sweet-home-140-c-tdyhp1gxx3#

Samella Lewis, Portraits of Plantation People, 1949, serigraph. Image courtesy of https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/491373

Samella Lewis, Field, 1968, linocut on paper. Image courtesy of https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/art/field/

Lewis's linocuts are particularly powerful, taking advantage of the physical act of carving itself to create raw compositions. Indeed, the gouge marks, visually reminiscent of lash scars and other forms of bodily violence, have a physical rawness in both their visual appearance and in process that underscores the violence often underpinning race relations in American. Field, carved in 1968, references the struggles of slaves and migrant workers, with its distilled reference to cotton fields and similar working environments. The figure's raised fists, however, also reference more recent social movements such as Black Power and Black Panthers, which often incorporated a raised fist into their iconography. The print establishes a parallel between slavery and modern systemic racism, with both struggling against oppressive conditions. At the same time, however, the figure in Field, despite its struggle, exudes power and strength, rising defiantly against adversity rather than crumbling beneath it.

Samella Lewis, I See You, 2005, linocut. Image courtesy of http://rcwg.scrippscollege.edu/blog/2008/07/09/samella-lewis/

A more recent work, I See You, explores the ongoing complexities of race relations in the 21st century. Set against a black ground, the figure's face is defined by areas of white paper that remain uninked, the areas that Lewis has carved away from the block. In other words, the figure's visual presence is established through whiteness, much as the white perspective has been the predominant influence on American popular culture, including perceptions of otherness. For a white viewer such as myself, the work reminds me how pervasive the white perspective is on the perception of all people in the United States, how it remains the default filter through which we experience popular culture. 

Yet the print is less straightforward than it appears. As the viewer moves further away from the work, the whiteness dissolves into a grayscale, suggesting the mutual influences of black and white culture on one another. The creation of culture, it reminds us, is rarely a one-way exchange, but a dialogue, even if that dialogue is often unacknowledged or undermined, as is the case in cultural appropriation.

Samella Lewis, Cleo, lithograph. Image courtesy of http://brandywineworkshop.com/product/samella-lewis-cleo-color/

Lewis's work is driven by the following philosophy, which she expressed in 1996: "Black women are nurturers. We nurture our families by seriously listening to and seriously considering what they tell us. We also have an obligation to see that valuing and collecting contemporary art is a significant aspect of nurturing. We must familiarize ourselves with our historical and contemporary art in order to understand and know ourselves." Through her work as a writer, historian, educator, collector, and artist, Lewis has played a critical role in the art world, both by supporting black artists and by introducing her academic colleagues to their work. She is definitely someone you should you know.

Want to learn more? Check out these sites, just for a start:

http://www.scrippscollege.edu/news/arts-and-culture/scripps-college-emerita-of-art-samella-lewis-work-showcased-at-wright-museum-of-african-american-history-and-stella-jones-gallery

https://www.kcet.org/local-heroes/local-hero-dr-samella-lewis-0

https://hammer.ucla.edu/now-dig-this/artists/samella-lewis/

http://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/samella-lewis-39

http://thewright.org/index.php/explore/exhibitions/current-exhibitions?id=702

http://www.louissternfinearts.com/samella-lewis-2012/