Lee-Smith - "Industrial Scene" Watercolor painting of industrial scene along a waterway

Hughie Lee-Smith • Ohio (1915-1999)

Industrial Scene C: 1953 • Watercolor on Paper 15-1/2" x 22-1/4"
Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased in Memory of Austin Lynch & Mary K. Lynch, 2011.19

In the 1920s trains traveling north still went clickety-clack as they waved goodbye to Jim Crow. Ten-year old Hughie Smith sat quietly in his only starched shirt and neatly pressed cotton knickers, a worn belt wrapped twice around his waist because his grandfather’s belly had been so much bigger. For 2 days he sat alone in the Negro Car at the back of the train. Five cars ahead flappers and dandy’s drank champagne and danced, never looking out the windows to see the Moss-draped Magnolias of central Georgia give way to the snow-covered industrial smokestacks of Ohio.

Finally, the train stopped at the old Cleveland terminal along the crooked river. In the distance, Hughie saw smoke and fire bellowing from refineries and steel mills scattered along the flats on either bank. He had last seen his mother six years before when she left him with Grandmother Queenie who raised him from that day to this. Now his mother was on the platform, a solitary black face standing out in a sea of white. Then she took him home.

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Years later, Hughie, now known by the more distinguished surname, Lee-Smith, talked about the many solitary figures in his art: “In my case, aloneness, I think, has stemmed from the fact that I’m black. Unconsciously it has a lot to do with a sense of alienation.” Lee-Smith expressed this solitude in a classically realistic style that moved toward Surrealism as he matured. “I think my paintings have to do with an invisible life – a reality on a different level.” His solitary figures found themselves placed among geometric concrete forms, or standing beneath circular portals like doorways to another world. His faceless people were placed beneath fluttering carnival flags, remnants from his life with Grandmother Queenie in Atlanta.

Hughie Lee-Smith spent his life painting isolation and alienation, yet somehow managed to show hopefulness at the same time. After all, he may have been the first black art teacher at many schools, and the first black member of the National Academy of Design. But he got in and others followed.

When Hughie Lee-Smith died in 1999, he had outlived, outworked and outsmarted Jim Crow. He died in the arts community near Albuquerque, surrounded by people just like him. Artists. Lots of them.

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“He was a skilled teacher at a number of schools for most of his adult life. He taught what he could do quite well.”

2.
“While teaching at Karamu House in Cleveland in the late 1930s he also danced with a modern dance troupe, making him one of America’s first multi-media artists.”

3.
“He often used carnival imagery in his paintings, a throwback to childhood carnivals he visited when living with his grandmother, Queenie, in Atlanta.”

4.
“While in the Navy during WWII he painted large murals about the “Negro in U.S. History” to build morale for black recruits.”

Lee-Smith Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1915

Born in Eustis, Florida, to Luther and Alice Smith. Later, while in art school, he gave himself a social promotion by subtly changing his last name. His parents divorced while he was still quite young.

1920s

Moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to live with his grandmother. His memories of attending carnivals there were frequent subjects of his future art.

1925

Moved to Cleveland, Ohio, (future site of 2016 NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers) where he rejoined his mother. As a young boy in Cleveland he attended his first art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

1934-38

Attended the Cleveland Institute of Art where he graduated in 1938. Upon graduation, he began teaching at Karamu House in Cleveland, an arts program for African-Americans. It was at Karamu House that he also studied Modern Dance.

1940

Married Mabel Louise Everett who he divorced 13 years later. The couple had one child, a daughter named Christina. This was his only child. Exhibited at the American Negro Exposition in Chicago.

1940s

Worked for the Ohio Works Progress Administration and the Ford Factory at River Rouge, while establishing his bonafides as an artist. During this time he completed a series of lithographic murals for the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois.

1953

While studying at the Detroit Institute of Art he won the top prize for painting. Years later he recalled this victory as a turning point in his career. “I was no longer called black artist, Negro artist, colored boy. When I won that prize all of a sudden, there was no longer a racial designation.” Received Bachelor Degree in Education from Wayne State University.

1958

Moved to New York City to teach at the Art Students League, where he continued to teach until 1973.

1959

Although not yet a member, he won the National Academy of Design’s Clarke Prize. In 1963 and 1977 he won the organization’s Ranger Fund Purchase prize.

1963

Became an Associate Member of the National Academy of Design. He was the second African-American elected to membership in the Academy and became the first African-American full member in 1967. This was during the heart of the Civil Rights era.

1965

Married Helen Nebraska. The couple divorced in 1974.

1969-71

Taught art at Howard University in Washington, D.C. After this stint, he returned to New York City and his teaching position at the Art Students League.

1978

Married Patricia Thomas-Ferry who remained his wife until his death.

1988

A retrospective of his work was shown at the New Jersey State Museum and the Studio Museum in Harlem.

1994

Commissioned to paint the official portrait of New York City Mayor, David Dinkins.

1997

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art mounted a retrospective of his life’s work.

1999

Died of cancer in Albuquerque, New Mexico.