Sachi Yanari-Rizzo, Curator of Prints & Drawings
Curlee Raven Holton is an accomplished painter, master printer, and educator. Born in Mississippi, the family relocated to the Cleveland, Ohio area. He received his BFA at the Cleveland Institute of Art in drawing and printmaking after 10 years while working full time to support his family.
Holton’s response to the question, “How did you become interested in printmaking?” is that it was serendipitous. A community activist, who was seeking artworks to support the African National Congress during Apartheid in South Africa, invited Holton to make a print. Through the help of fellow Cleveland Institute of Art students, the result was White Terms, his first lithograph.
Holton loved the medium’s democratic nature with its affordability and ability to share an image with a large audience. He further explained that “the mix of physical labor and technology, even though it was low technology in terms of a printing press, the relationship between the labor and the idea that you could use your body and your heart, creativity, and your mind to produce an art object was so seductive to me.”i
Holton’s MFA was from Kent State University with a concentration on printmaking and painting. He furthered his skills in the collaborative environment at Robert Blackburn’s Printmaking workshop in New York City through a one-year fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Upon Blackburn’s recommendation, Holton began teaching printmaking and African American art history at Lafayette College, Eaton, PA. He founded the Experimental Printmaking Institute (EPI) there in 1996, inspired by his mentor’s workshop. Unlike Blackburn’s model, EPI received financial support from the college for collaborations between professional artists and students. Ten years later he established Raven Fine Art Editions. In 2010 Holton became the director of the David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland-College Park until retiring in 2023. He continues to create art, and his work is in the collections of the Cleveland Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and Yale University Art Gallery, among others.
Through the years, Holton has juggled multiple jobs at the same time and continued to work in the studio. FWMoA’s print Searching for A Memory (2016) has both personal significance and yet resonates with so many of us. A man, immersed in thought, is seated in a room framed by houseplants and a hutch. The walls and ceiling dissolve into an open, outdoor space lit by a sconce and bordered by a railing.
It’s a surrealistic scene with hovering objects, perhaps handcuffs or shackles. The artist brushed on lithographic tusche for the soft washes that enhance this dreamlike effect. The fluid lines contrast with the stark, solidity of the figural form and the thoughts flooding his head. Holton commented, “This sensuality of . . . the limestone [in lithography] was like drawing on skin, so seductive and so powerful, and its capacity to function both as an artistic medium and a political medium of expression at the same time was really transformative for me.”ii
Holton made variations of this composition at least twice. Searching for My Memory from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art’s collection is a lithograph and silkscreen in color. The use of blue, brown, and yellow ink helps to lighten the mood and grounds it more in reality. In the acrylic painting Searching for Memory (Timmy), Holton eliminated much of the background. Our attention focuses on the figure and words which are framed by vegetation and set against a yellow orange scene.
In the FWMoA’s print, phrases and the words, “cry, memory, remember, confused”, and, “I don’t know”, stand out. In an Instagram post from November 22, 2020, Holton shared, “’Searching for My Memory’ was . . . inspired by a drawing of a family member who suffered from short-term memory loss as he aged. He would forget what he was asked to do just moments after being told, often whispering to himself, ‘what was I supposed to do?’ and trying to find the memory of what he was told. If you look closely you can see text circling around his head in search of the accurate memory. This subject explores concerns with aging and the onset of Alzheimer’s.”
Holton divulged little physical information about the sitter who is a silhouette in profile. Not engaging with the viewer, his stoic gaze is directed to the right, a sign of preoccupation or social withdrawal. Instead of making a floating speech balloon like those used in comics, the artist sequestered the sitter’s inner voice to text confined and consumed by his mind and body. The silkscreened words are printed in caps and varying degrees of emphasis or thickness in a sparkly, silvery gray ink. Although not audible, the words speak of the senses and seethe with emotion. The subject’s thoughts read:
Thoughts like leeches crawling in slow motion through my mind
I can smell the memory
I just can’t see it very well
I hear the echo as the words she spoke
I know she said something
I know I should remember but it is so hard
I keep getting confused
I don’t know
I think you told me to do something
Something important
But what was it?
What did you say, I am not so sure but it sounded like
I think it had something to do with
Wait a minute, wait a minute
What was it again
Really want
I am really trying hard
I bump up against the walls of my mind
Remember the significance
I want to cry
Holton’s print is a poignant visualization of social isolation and the rapid-fire thoughts and range of feelings that people suffering from memory loss are likely to experience.
FWMoA offers a monthly tour, Meet Me at FWMoA, which provides an opportunity for people with memory loss and their care partners to enjoy art together. This program is specially designed for individuals with an early-stage diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. Tours are led by a trained educator and explore a different theme each month through close-looking and lively conversation. Tours are free of charge for participants and their care partners and take place the third Tuesday of each month at 2pm, lasting about an hour. Space is limited; please register by emailing alyssa.dumire@fwmoa.org or calling 260.422.6467, ext. 312.
Make an appointment or stop by the Print & Drawing Study Center, Tuesday-Friday, 11am-3pm to see more of our works on paper!