Ernest Crichlow, 91; Artist Depicted Life for Blacks in America

Ernest Crichlow, 91, a Harlem Renaissance artist whose work depicted the struggles of black America, died of heart failure Thursday in his native Brooklyn, N.Y.

Crichlow was part of a group of artists who developed their techniques in the 1930s at a Harlem workshop established by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project. His lithographs and paintings focused initially on Depression-era social justice themes, and later on civil rights issues.

One of his most famous works was his 1938 “Lovers” showing a black woman resisting the sexual assault of a hooded Ku Klux Klansman. Another was the 1965 painting of a black girl staring through a barbed-wire fence titled “Waiting.”

In 1969, he joined two better-known fellow artists, Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis, to found the Cinque Gallery in Manhattan.

The gallery, which promoted minority artists, was named for the leader of the rebellion on the slave ship Amistad.