Created by
Lee-Smith, Hughie, American, 1915 - 1999
Subject of
Unidentified Man or Men
Date
1959 - 1960
Medium
oil paint or oil-modified alkyd on canvas
Dimensions
H x W x D (framed): 31 1/8 × 39 7/8 × 2 in. (79.1 × 101.3 × 5.1 cm)
H x W x D (unframed): 26 × 34 1/8 × 13/16 in. (66 × 86.6 × 2 cm)
Caption
American surrealist painter Hughie Lee-Smith always thought of himself as an artist, an American artist. It was important for him to make this distinction, as many members of the white art establishment generally did not, choosing instead to confine the work of African Americans to the segregated category “black art.”
For Lee-Smith, paintings such as Untitled symbolized his experiences as a person living in a racist society. “I think perhaps in expressing . . . a kind of loneliness of spirit, I’m expressing a thing that’s based in the life experience of most Negroes in this country—a sense of rejection, a sense of being out there all by yourself.”
Description
This painting depicts an anonymous African American man walking away from the viewer. Wearing a pink shirt and grey pants, he walks with head bowed, yet his shoulders straight. The landscape around him is barren and rocky, with a single upright pole standing in the foreground. There is a dead log on the ground to the right. Directly ahead of the man is a field of stones, beyond which is a bleak landscape of rocky bluffs under a grey sky. There are three trees in the distance.
Place made
New York City, New York County, New York, United States, North and Central America
Classification
Visual Arts
Type
oil paintings
Topic
Art
Men
Race discrimination
Segregation
Credit Line
Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
Object number
2012.45ab
Restrictions & Rights
© 1959 by Hughie Lee-Smith/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS)
Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/fd58f9e109f-9b62-4762-93a8-447cf1dceb26

Cataloging is an ongoing process and we may update this record as we conduct additional research and review. If you have more information about this object, please contact us at NMAAHCDigiTeam@si.edu

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