{
"data": {
"id": 122977,
"accession_number": "1943.244",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Siesta, 1943. William E. Smith (American, 1913\u20131997). Linocut; plate: 22.9 x 20.4 cm (9 x 8 1/16 in.); sheet: 27.8 x 21.6 cm (10 15/16 x 8 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland, 1943.244. \u00a9 William E. Smith",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Siesta",
"creation_date": "1943",
"creation_date_earliest": 1943,
"creation_date_latest": 1943,
"artists_tags": [
"Black American Artists",
"May Show",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"America, Ohio, Cleveland"
],
"technique": "linocut",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Linocut",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Plate: 22.9 x 20.4 cm (9 x 8 1/16 in.); Sheet: 27.8 x 21.6 cm (10 15/16 x 8 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"plate": {
"height": 0.229,
"width": 0.204
},
"sheet": {
"height": 0.278,
"width": 0.216
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": "21, 25, or 70",
"copyright": "\u00a9 William E. Smith",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "inscribed, lower left margin, in blue pencil: \"SIESTA\"; lower right margin, in blue pencil: William E. Smith \"43\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 382035,
"title": "The May Show: 25th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen",
"description": "The May Show: 25th Annual Exhibition of Works by Cleveland Artists and Craftsmen. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 27-June 6, 1943).",
"opening_date": "1943-04-27T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 442774,
"title": "Impressions / Expressions: Black American Graphics",
"description": "Impressions / Expressions: Black American Graphics. Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY (organizer) (October 7, 1979-January 6, 1980); Howard University, Washington, D.C., DC (February 10-March 28, 1980).",
"opening_date": "1979-10-07T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309884,
"title": "Urban Vicissitudes",
"description": "Urban Vicissitudes. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 2-September 29, 1985).",
"opening_date": "1985-07-02T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311873,
"title": "Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946",
"description": "Transformations in Cleveland Art, 1796-1946. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 19-July 21, 1996).",
"opening_date": "1996-05-19T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 381923,
"title": "Ashcan School Prints and the American City, 1900\u20131940",
"description": "Ashcan School Prints and the American City, 1900\u20131940. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 18-December 26, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-07-17T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 667699,
"title": "Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community",
"description": "Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 23-August 17, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2025-03-23T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Our Stories: African American Prints and Drawings. Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (January 26 - May 18, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2014-01-26T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "With a fellow artist, William E. Smith went on to found the first gallery specifically devoted to African American art in Los Angeles after World War II.",
"description": "William E. Smith conceived of this print at the height of the Great Depression as a statement on the struggles of unemployment, especially in Black communities, during that global economic downturn. He originally titled it Poverty and Fatigue, dramatically shifting our interpretation of a man who slumps forward and gazes downward. In this context, the man\u2019s well-kept clothing might relate to a job search while his defeated pose could suggest the difficulty he faces in finding work. Smith himself benefited from federally funded support for unemployed artists that occasionally subsidized the salaries of Karamu teaching artists.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80019551"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "William E. Smith Entry Card to 1943 May Show. Cleveland Museum of Art May Show Records, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMS06708/"
},
{
"citation": "Salsbury, Britany, and Erin E. Benay. Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 50, no. 20",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Teller 17 (as Poverty and Fatigue); Salsbury, Benay, and Kruse 98",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1943.244",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of The Print Club of Cleveland",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 122977,
"creators": [
{
"id": 7978,
"description": "William E. Smith (American, 1913\u20131997)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "A highly skilled printmaker, William Elijah Smith specialized in genre scenes of working-class African-American life in Cleveland. Born in Chattanooga, Smith moved to Cleveland at the age of 13 and became involved with Karamu House, learning print making and stage design. He studied art at the Huntington Polytechnic Institute, 1933\u201334. During this time he began teaching at Karamu House and continued to do so until 1940. In 1941 he won the art competition for presenting one of his prints to the Library of Congress for its permanent collection. Smith exhibited at the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts in Hartford (1935), in the annual May Shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art (1936\u2013 49), at the Associated American Artists Galleries of New York (1942), and at Atlanta University (1942). During World War II, he served as a photographer in the army\u2019s educational department. After the war, he returned to Cleveland and established a commercial silkscreening studio. In 1946 the Lyman Brothers\u2019 Gallery in Indianapolis mounted his first solo exhibition. From 1946 to 1948 he studied painting and printmaking at the Cleveland School of Art and the Cooper School of Art. In the late 1940s Smith moved to Los Angeles, where he associated with Curtis Tann, a former colleague from Karamu House. With Tann, Smith cofounded the Eleven Associated Artists Gallery, the first Los Angeles gallery devoted specifically to African art. In 1952 Smith was hired to work as a blueprint draftsman at Lockheed Aircraft, beginning a long association with the corporation. In 1960 he cofounded Art West Associated, an African-American artists\u2019 advocacy organization in Los Angeles. In 1970 he published illustrations of subjects from African-American history for Cleveland\u2019s New Day Press. Smith\u2019 s works were displayed ins numerous group exhibitions in the Los Angeles area (1960s\u201380s).
Transformations in Cleveland Art. (CMA, 1996), p. 238",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1913",
"death_year": "1997",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1943-04-26T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1943,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1943",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Poverty and Fatigue"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-26 23:59:46.802000"
}
}