Artist

Allan Rohan Crite

born Plainfield, NJ 1910-died Boston, MA 2007
Also known as
  • Allan R. Crite
  • Allan Crite
Born
Plainfield, New Jersey, United States
Died
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Biography

Brought up in Boston, Crite received his art training al the School of the Museum of Fine Arts and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at the Harvard University Extension School in 1968. He worked for most of his life as an illustrator in the Planning Department of the Boston Naval Shipyards, retiring in 1976, but continued to paint at the same time. His work has been widely exhibited and well received in Boston, where a square is named after him. Crite's early paintings depict the daily life of Boston's African-American community, a community that was to be transformed in the following decade by urban renewal and housing projects. According to the artist, he sought to show viewers the "real Negro" as opposed to the "Harlem" or "jazz Negro," that was created by white people.

In his later paintings, magic-realist visions in which a black Virgin and Child ride on public transportation or float above the city streets, Crite used a bright palette rather than the more somber tones of his "neighborhood paintings." Compared with these earlier paintings, the religious works offer a message of hope and deliverance. During the 1950s Crite lectured on liturgical art and wrote and illustrated books with theological themes telling "the story of man through the black figure."

William H. Truettner and Roger B. Stein, editors, with contributions by Dona Brown, Thomas Andrew Denenberg, Judith K. Maxwell, Stephen Nissenbaum, Bruce Robertson, Roger B. Stein, and William H. Truettner Picturing Old New England: Image and Memory (Washington, D.C.; New Haven, Conn; and London: National Museum of American Art with Yale University Press, 1999)

Works by this artist (136 items)

Jacob Kainen, Woman with Dark Hair, 1959, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mrs. Mary Jane Fisher, 1979.82
Woman with Dark Hair
Date1959
oil on canvas
On view
Jacob Kainen, Jacob and the Angel, 1977, oil and collage on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Ruth and Jacob Kainen, 1990.79.2
Jacob and the Angel
Date1977
oil and collage on paper
Not on view
Jacob Kainen, Color Guard, 1973, color lithograph on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the artist, 1976.14.3
Color Guard
Date1973
color lithograph on paper
Not on view
Jacob Kainen, Casement, 1984, oilstick, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of an anonymous donor, 1995.97
Casement
Date1984
oilstick
Not on view