{
"data": {
"id": 291895,
"accession_number": "2016.273",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Shirtless Boy, New York, c. 1965. Louis H. Draper (American, 1935\u20132002). Gelatin silver print; image: 29.4 x 21.4 cm (11 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.); paper: 35.2 x 28 cm (13 7/8 x 11 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund, 2016.273",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Shirtless Boy, New York",
"creation_date": "c. 1965",
"creation_date_earliest": 1960,
"creation_date_latest": 1970,
"artists_tags": [
"male",
"Black American Artists"
],
"culture": [
"America"
],
"technique": "gelatin silver print",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Photography",
"collection": "PH - American 1951-Present",
"type": "Photograph",
"measurements": "Image: 29.4 x 21.4 cm (11 9/16 x 8 7/16 in.); Paper: 35.2 x 28 cm (13 7/8 x 11 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"image": {
"height": 0.294,
"height_inch": 11,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"width": 0.214,
"width_inch": 8,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
},
"paper": {
"height": 0.352,
"height_inch": 13,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.875,
"width": 0.28,
"width_inch": 11,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in pencil on verso: \u201cDR0027/LD064\u201d\nWritten in pencil on verso: \u201cBook/27/large\u201d",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 292784,
"title": "Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed",
"description": "Black in America: Louis Draper and Leonard Freed. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 26-July 30, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2017-02-26T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Louis Draper (the artist) [1935-2002]",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Estate of Louis Draper",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Steven Kasher Gallery, New York, NY)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "December 5, 2016",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "A goal for Louis Draper was to show blacks participating in universal human experience.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Raised in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Louis Draper moved to New York City to study photography in 1957. Shooting mostly in Harlem and around New York, he created reflective and penetrating portraits, compelling street photography, and, later in life, abstractions. Depicting black skin was difficult because all film was balanced for white complexions. Draper often used reflective highlights to give the black face and body dimensionality and texture.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79865172"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Tannenbaum, Barbara. \u201cBlack in America: Two photographers\u2014one black, one white\u2014look at life during the civil rights era.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 2 (March/April 2017): 28-29.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 29",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2017-02/page/n13/mode/2up"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2016.273",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Mr. and Mrs. Richard W. Whitehill Art Purchase Endowment Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 291895,
"creators": [
{
"id": 291892,
"description": "Louis H. Draper (American, 1935\u20132002)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": "American photographer, 1935-2002
Raised in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Louis Draper (1935\u20132002) moved to New York City to study photography in 1957. He supported himself through commercial photography, film production, and teaching so he could produce his personal work. Shooting mostly in Harlem and around New York, Draper created reflective and penetrating portraits, compelling street photography, and, later in life, abstractions. Although Draper rarely commented on individual photographs, he wrote and spoke about the impact he felt he could make through photography. The profession caused him to \u201crealize that what I felt had worth; that I could make strong statements about the world in visual terms and that often these images did in fact move people emotionally. I had power . . . [that] was given to me for the purpose of sharing.\u201d Seeking an ongoing forum for dialogue with other photographers, in 1963 Draper co-founded Kamoinge, an important collective of African American photographers that continues to this day in Harlem. Among the group\u2019s concerns was to try to define a black aesthetic in photography. Draper proposed in 1972 that it would require \u201can investigation into the nature of what it means to be black, and a translation of that into optical terms.\u201d",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1935",
"death_year": "2002",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2016-12-05T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1960,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1965",
"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": [],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:53:44.792000"
}
}