Outside of The Cleveland Museum of Art’s May Show, the institution’s long-standing and erstwhile local artist display, Cleveland-Parma resident Mabel Hewit, who died in 1984, never received much attention in her hometown. Currently The Cleveland Museum of Art is doing something about that with its “Midwest Modern: The Color Woodcuts of Mabel Hewit,” a 76-piece exhibit currently open through Sun 10/24 at the Cleveland institution.
Cool Cleveland recently talked to Cleveland Museum of Art Curator of Prints Jane Glaubinger about why the museum decided to focus an exhibit around Hewit – who was born in Conneaut in 1903 and raised in Youngstown – before she fell into obscurity.
Cool Cleveland: Let’s start at the beginning, how did you become aware of Hewit’s work?
Jane Glaubinger: It all started in 2002 with an exhibition called “From Paris to Provincetown, Blanche Lazzell and the Color Woodcut.” I got a call one day from a man who asked if there were any prints in the show from Mabel Hewit? There were three. He said, “I’m her nephew, and I have a lot more of her work. Would you like to see more?” So he and his wife brought some prints and blocks. I got so excited with the work. It was so wonderful.
Is it an over-simplification to characterize Hewit’s work as a true gem from our own backyard?
Exactly. And it turned out we already had three of her prints. The first print, which is in the exhibition is a color woodcut, was purchased for the museum out of The May Show. It started in 1919 and it was an exhibition of work by local artists. We stopped having that maybe 15 years ago, but it was a big deal every year and a great way for local artists to show off their work. Mabel was in May shows for 22 years. They were always juried picking out the best works. So it turned out the museum already owned one color woodcut of hers, one lithograph and she also printed wood blocks on fabric. And we owned one of those.
What exactly is the artistic printmaking technique woodcut?
The technique she used called the white line woodcut, what the artist does is carve a groove around each area of color and then you ink the print. She printed by hand, just as all the artists who use this technique, which was invented in 1915 in Provincetown. So they used watercolor and colored an area of the block, put the paper down on top, rubbed the back of paper which transferred the color from the block to the piece of paper so the white line, this groove around each area of color, doesn’t print of course and that is the white of the paper. And then when you rub the back of the paper, the area is forced down into the groove so these white lines, which outline every area of color, are really a bit three dimensional.
In your opinion, what is Mabel Hewit’s legacy?That she was a very good artist, a very good print maker and also she adapted to each technique. When she made color woodcuts, she would simplify the subject – the image – into area of color, which was appropriate for the technique she was using. And then when she made lithographs and there are some in the show, where you draw very freely on a lithograph stone, they are almost like sketches. And then when she printed blocks on fabric, she had to change her way of thinking. The one we have, you actually printed the block seven times around to get the entire image. It was very sophisticated what she did. So she was very adaptable and realized what was good about each technique. What were the characteristics unique to that technique? So she really exploited them for her own purposes so each technique she used very, very well. And she was a wonderful artist.
Finally, what do you hope visitors of “Midwest Modern: The Color Woodcuts of Mabel Hewit” take away from the exhibit?
What a wonderful artist Mabel was and how she kept making art in her home and never stopped. In fact, she said in an interview when she was quite elderly, “Art is my life.” And that’s true. Art was really Mabel’s life.
The Cleveland Museum of Art is located at 11150 East Boulevard, Cleveland. Admission to the museum is free. Hours are Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays from 10AM until 5PM; Wednesdays and Fridays from 10AM until 9PM. The museum is closed on Mondays. For more information, visit ClevelandArt.org.
Image [top]: The Trash Barrel, about 1936. Mabel Hewit (American, 1903–1987). Color woodcut; 23.7 x 31.2 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Jurey in memory of Mabel A. Hewit 1936.368 Print © Mabel Hewit.
Image [bottom] Sun Bathing, 1937. Mabel Hewit (American, 1903–1984). Color woodcut; 27.7 x 30.3 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William Jurey in memory of Mabel A. Hewit 2003.362 Print © Mabel Hewit.
Free-lance writer John Benson spends most of his time writing for various papers throughout Northeast Ohio.
When he’s not writing about music or entertainment, he can be found coaching his two boys in basketball, football and baseball or watching movies with his lovely wife, Maria.