Allan Crite

Infobox Person
name = Allan Rohan Crite
birth_date = birth date|1910|3|20
birth_place = flagicon|New Jersey North Plainfield, New Jersey, United States
death_date = death date and age|2007|9|6|1910|3|20
death_place = flagicon|Massachusetts Boston, Massachusetts, United States
occupation = Artist

Allan Rohan Crite (March 20, 1910cite web| url=http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=81| title=Allan Crite Biography |work=The HistoryMakers| |accessdate=2008-03-20] – September 6, 2007 was a Boston-based African-American artist born in North Plainfield, New Jersey.

He has won several honors, such as the 350th Harvard University Anniversary Medal.cite web| url=http://www.dce.harvard.edu/pubs/alum/1998/04.html| publisher=Harvard Extension School| work=Alumni Bulletin| title=Allan Crite at Home| year=1998| accessdate=2008-03-20]

Personal life

Crite's mother, Annamae, was a poet who encouraged her son to draw. He showed promise early, enrolling in the Children's Art School at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts and graduating from The English High School in 1929. Accepted at Yale, he instead went to the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, from which he graduated in 1936.cite news| work=Boston Globe| url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/obituaries/articles/2007/09/08/allan_rohan_crite_97_dean_of_ne_african_american_artists/| date=2007-11-08| accessdate=2008-03-20| author=Mark Feeney| title=Allan Rohan Crite, 97, dean of N.E. African-American artists.]

Crite later decided to attend Harvard University, where he completed his studies, receiving an ALB in 1968. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Suffolk University in Boston. [cite web| url=http://www.phillipscollection.org/american_art/bios/crite-bio.htm| publisher=Phillips Collection| title=Allan Rohan Crite Biography| accessdate=2008-03-20]

Crite was among the few African-Americans ever employed by the Federal Arts Project. In 1940, he began a 30-year relationship with the Boston Naval Shipyard when he took a job as an engineering draftsman.

During his later years, Crite both lived and worked in the Allan Rohan Crite Research Institute at at 410 Columbus Avenue in Boston's South End.

He died of natural causes in his sleep at age 97.cite web| url=http://www.askart.com/askart/artist.aspx?artist=21037| publisher=AskArt| title=Allan Rohan Crite|accessdate=2008-03-21]

Artwork

Crite was a devout Episcopalian, and his religion inspired many of his works.cite web| url=http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/764/| work=The African American Registry| title=Allan Crite, an innovative painter| accessdate=2008-03-21] cite web| url=http://www.3d-dali.com/Artist-Biographies/Allan_Crite.html| publisher=3D-Dali| work=Painters Biographies| title=Allan Crite| accessdate=2008-03-21]

According to one biographer, his favorite color is "all colors" and his favorite time of year is "anything but winter."

His paintings fall into two categories: religious themes and general African-American experiences, with some reviewers adding a third category for work depicting Negro spirituals. His 1946 painting "Madonna of the Subway" is an example of a blend of genres, depicting a Black Holy Mother and baby Jesus riding Boston's Orange Line.

Crite explained his body of work as having a common theme:

According to one reviewer, "Crite's oils and graphics, even when restricted to black and white, are bright in tonality, fine and varied in line, extremely rhythmic, dramatic in movement, and often patterned."

Crite's works hang in such major American art galleries as the Smithsonian, the Museum of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

Books

Among Crite's illustrated books are 1948's "Three Spirituals from Earth to Heaven", in which he illustrated religious stories from such African-American spirituals as "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See".

Exhibitions

Crite's major exhibitions include 1920’s Harmon Foundation Exhibitions, 1930s Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1936 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1939 Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1978 and The Boston Athenaeum, 1997.

His works were shown in a coordinated series of posthumous exhibitions in 2007-08, at the Boston Public Library, the Boston Athenaeum, and the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists. [cite web| url=http://www.bpl.org/crite2.pdf| format=pdf| title=The life and art of Allan Rohan Crite: 1910-2007| publisher=Boston Public Library| accessdate=2008-03-21| date=2007-11-17]

References

External links

* [http://negroartist.com/negro%20artist/Allan%20Rohan%20Crite/index.htm Collection of paintings at negroartist.com]
* [http://americanart.si.edu/images/1971/1971.447.18_1b.jpg"School's Out"] at Smithsonian American Art Museum