An artist whose prints of Ku Klux Klansmen caused a community outcry has withdrawn his work from a showing at Harford Community College.

The drawings, several of which showed hooded and robed Klansmen, prompted an emergency meeting of the school's multicultural advisory committee Tuesday night, during which several area residents described the prints as "menacing."

Dan Witmer, the artist, attended that meeting and decided Wednesday to end his show, which began July 22 and was scheduled to run through Aug. 28 in the Chesapeake Gallery.

"The mechanisms now are such that the intent of the work can no longer be realized," Witmer, a former Harford Community College student, said in a statement released by school officials yesterday. "This is my decision based on my sensitivity toward the community."

School officials said the gallery, which periodically exhibits the works of local artists, has been closed. Witmer's prints were the only exhibit.

Pub Date: 8/14/98