ERNIE CRICHLOW MEMORIAL AT MEDGAR EVERS Continued from home page

ERNIE CRICHLOW MEMORIAL AT MEDGAR EVERS
Continued from home page
A very likeable and fun loving individual, he was a team player, often working with other artists to better serve the people he loved. In 1938 he began exhibiting in the “Harlem Community Center”, organized by a group of artists and a few years later had an exhibition in the downtown “McMillan Gallery”. Ernie, along with fellow artists Romare Bearden, Jacob Lawrence and Norman Lewis, were among the first Black artists to exhibit at New York’s “Downtown Gallery”.
His first one man show was at the ACA Gallery in 1960, which is until today, one of the most prestigious New York galleries. Other one man shows include the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Afro-American Artists Museum in Philadelphia, the Newark Museum, the Institute of Modern Art in Boston and the New York World’s Fair.

He was a member of the Black Academy of Arts and Letters and held membership in a number of professional and civic organizations. Ernie and 9 other members of the National Conference of Artists were honored by President Jimmy Carter at the White House in 1980.

In 1969 Crichlow, a former director of the Society for American Culture, Bearden and Lewis, founded the Cinque Gallery in order to give young artists from disadvantaged backgrounds, an opportunity to study art. Among the many children’s books that Crichlow illustrated was “Two Is A Team”, a book that was one of my favorites as a child. I only found out that he was the illustrator at the memorial.Those of us that have visited Brooklyn’s Boys High School will recognize the mural at the entrance that Ernie painted in 1976, a year before he traveled to the International Black Arts Festival (FESTAC 77), in Lagos, Nigeria

Grace Y. Ingleton, vice-president and driving force of The Dedicators, spoke about their friendship and his honor.

Dr. Edison O. Jackson, president of Medgar Evers, spoke of Ernie and the college’s plans to continue to build new buildings to accommodate the increases in student enrollment. He noted that they have had a 42% increase in male students in the past years, a welcomed announcement in a day and age that Black males have been noticeably absent for the campuses of the US. Seventy percent of the student body are females. Izell Glover, a good friend of Ernie’s and a profession of art at the college, served as Master of Ceremonies, lauded Crichlow and recited a poem that he wrote in his honor.

   Famed sculptor Mel Edwards spoke of the great times he, other artists and Ernie had creating art with a “mixture of Tanqueray and lime juice…. not just linseed oil. It’s essential” to create great art. He stated that Ernie, Romare and Norman were all different, but had a common belief that “the community is the center of the universe.”

    Collector Vivian Hewitt spoke of the relationship that she and her husband, Dr. John Hewitt of Morehouse College had with Ernie and how the used to exhibit the work of artists in the home. She mentioned how she had to almost force him to raise his prices, to meet the quality of his work. Ernie was reluctant because “my people won’t be able to afford it.” Hewitt wrote an article that soon will be featured in the prestigious International Review of African American Art, published by Hampton University Press, one of the finest quarterlies on Black art in the world. Their Hewitt Collection that features the work of many of the great African American artists including Hale Woodruff, has traveled to 20 cities since the year 2000.
Playwright Bill Branch, who wrote a play that Ernie was the art director for during World War II, spoke of the days and some of the racism that artists faced in the forties. He mentioned that when Ernie was taking classes at a prestigious school in New York’s Flatiron Building, they would not let him into class when they had a white model in the figure class, which was an anatomy class with nude models.

    Crichlow’s work is in many public and private collections the world over, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Hewitt Collection and in the collections of Morgan Freeman, Lena Horne and the late Ossie Davis.

   Other speakers, including former director of the Cinque Gallery, Ruth Jett, famed landscape artist Richard Mayhew, world class painter Ed Clark, gave glowing reports and memories of Ernie. Niece Brenda Gallashaw spoke for the family and related the personal attributes of “uncle Ernie”, as did Chenelle Sheppard and Jacqueline Foster.

As Mayhew noted, “he was small in stature but he was a giant.”