A black-and-white lithograph centers on the head and shoulders of a Black girl set against wide, unprinted paper. Her skin is modeled with velvety grays and deep shadows, plus bright highlights on the forehead, nose, and cheekbone that make the face feel carefully lit and 3D. Short, textured hair is gathered upward, leaving one ear visible. She turns to our left, focused as if listening or watching for something beyond the frame. Her expression is quiet, serious, and tired in a way that suggests endurance rather than drama. A pale shirt is loosely drawn at the shoulders, with a few darker strokes and speckled marks suggesting folds and shadow. Over the entire figure lies a rigid grid of barbed wire with horizontal and vertical strands across her face and clothing, with twisted knots and sharp points at the intersections. The wire lines are thin but insistently repeated, so the barrier is a restraint made visible. Made in 1968, the work turns a single portrait into a statement about imposed limits. The girl is presented with dignity and specificity, yet seen through a structure designed to divide. The wire grid is both literal fencing and a compressed symbol for segregation, surveillance, and the everyday boundaries that define where safety, freedom, and possibility are permitted to exist. American artist Ernest Crichlow heightens that meaning through stark color contrasts of black against white as well as soft human shading against hard linear constraint, so our eyes keep moving between the child’s living face and the cold geometry that interrupts it. The title, “Waiting,” lands as a condition as much as a moment. Is she waiting to pass, to be allowed, ot to simply be treated as fully human? And because her gaze stays fixed outward, still, alert, and unresolved, the image holds tension between confinement and persistence, likely asking us to notice not only the barrier, but the person who lives behind it.

“Waiting” by Ernest Crichlow (American) - Lithograph / 1968 - Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington) #WomenInArt #ErnestCrichlow #Crichlow #DelawareArtMuseum #Arte #1960s #Lithograph #BlackArt #art #artText #BlueskyArt #PortraitofaGirl #AmericanArt #RacialJusticeArt #AfricanAmericanArtist #AmericanArtist

Weekes was also president of #FultonArtFair an organization co-founded in 1958 by artists #ErnestCrichlow and #JacobLawrence to promote the art of people of Caribbean and African descent.

In Woman in a Blue Coat, arguably Crichlow's most important painting, a confident, self-assured Black woman is depicted. It is an upper body portrait of her wearing a citrine yellow scarf and oxford blue coat with light gold buttons as she crosses her arms and intently looks to her left. The letters ”xra” appear above her head. Unlike later works by the artist that deal directly with societal limitations placed on blacks, this work celebrates the depth of emotions conveyed by her countenance. This is an image controversial for its confident nature, simplicity, and its disavowal of the political world beyond the frame. The woman is elevated to heroic stature, with her bemused look, at a time when the everyday lives of African-American women were not typically considered worthy of representation. Primarily a figurative painter, Crichlow concentrated on people who lived in his Brooklyn neighborhood. He stated, "I try to show all of the emotions . . . I'm interested in clarity." Ernest Crichlow was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1914. He joined the Harlem Artists Guild in the 1930s during the Harlem Renaissance and worked alongside Jacob Lawrence, Charles Alston, and Aaron Douglas. The Artists Guild was supported by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided employment for many artists during the Depression. For Crichlow, the WPA was essential to the formation of many careers of African-American artists. He said that the WPA was "the greatest stimulant the American art scene had ever had. It meant something to be an artist then. The WPA was our haven and offered us a real entrée into what was happening. We had a lot of hope . . . Before that, very few of us had anything resembling a real art education." Crichlow was always a strong advocate for black artists. In 1969, he, Romare Bearden, and Norman Lewis jointly founded the Cinque Gallery, an institution devoted to the advancement of black artists.

Woman in a Blue Coat by Ernest Crichlow (American) - Oil on canvas / 1948 - The Harvey B. Gantt Center (Charlotte, North Carolina) #womeninart #portrait #art #portraitofawoman #oilpainting #GanttCenter #fineart #ErnestCrichlow #americanartist #womensart #artwork #americanart #harlemrenaissance