{{Short description|American artist and curator}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2022}} '''William McKnight Farrow''' (1885–1967) was an American artist and curator active in the early twentieth century.<ref name=":0">{{Cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Wintz|editor1-first=Cary|title=Farrow, William McKnight|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance|editor2-last=Finkelman|editor2-first=Paul|editor2-link=Paul Finkelman|publisher=Routledge|year=2004|isbn=1-57958-389-X|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6Cs0Y1pvRAC&q=mcknight|pages=359–360}}</ref> Recognized as a printmaker in his own right, he is best known for his promotion and inspiration of fellow African-American artists who became prominent in the mid-twentieth century.<ref name=":0" />
He was born in Dayton, Ohio. In 1908, he moved to Chicago, Illinois to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.<ref name=":1">{{Cite encyclopedia|editor1-last=Gates|editor1-first=Henry Louis Jr.|editor1-link=Henry Louis Gates|title=Farrow, William McKnight|encyclopedia=Harlem Renaissance Lives|editor2-last=Higginbotham|editor2-first=Evelyn Brooks|editor2-link=Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-538795-7|pages=192–193|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E_vRLcgEdGoC&dq=william+mcknight+farrow&pg=PA192}}</ref> He later became a curator at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he was instrumental in organizing the Institute's 1927 exhibition ''The Negro in Art Week'', a major early exhibition of African-American art.<ref name=":0" /> His own work was on display at Chicago's South Side Community Art Center, where it inspired later artists such as Charles White and Gordon Parks.<ref name=":1" /> Farrow also wrote a regular arts column for ''The Chicago Defender'' and contributed essays to ''The Crisis''.<ref name=":1" />
In addition to his work as a printmaker and curator, Farrow taught art at Carl Schurz High School. He was fired from his teaching job in 1948 following a profile in the ''Pittsburgh Courier'', an African-American newspaper; the school had hired Farrow believing he was white.<ref name=":1" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Farrow, William McKnight}} Category:20th-century American printmakers Category:American art curators Category:African-American printmakers Category:African-American curators Category:School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni Category:Artists from Dayton, Ohio Category:Artists from Chicago Category:1885 births Category:1967 deaths Category:20th-century African-American artists