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Hughie Lee-Smith

Hughie Lee-Smith (b. 1915, Eustis, Florida; d. 1999, Albuquerque, New Mexico) was a painter whose surreal compositions reflect the social alienation of mid-twentieth century American life. Lee-Smith came of age in the midst of the Great Depression, spending his early life between Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit. He studied at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and the Cleveland School of Art, and became involved in Karamu House, the oldest running Black theater in the nation. The Midwest left an indelible influence on Lee-Smith–his early Social Realist paintings often made reference to its expansive gray skies and industrial architecture. Teaching would take him to the East Coast, where he was an instructor at the Art Students League in New York City and later acting head of the art department at Howard University in Washington, DC, a stronghold of the Black Arts Movement. Even as his environment changed, the visual vernacular of the Midwest remained in Lee-Smith’s work: pendants and ribbons from traveling carnivals, crumbling brick buildings, and vast landscapes in which figures, lost in thought, stand with their backs to the viewer. His paintings bear traces of Surrealist influence, in particular Georgio de Chirico, as well as the French Neoclassical painter Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Lee-Smith left behind an idiosyncratic body of work: his painted world abides by the otherworldly logic of dreams and symbols, evidence of a lifelong effort to see beyond the real. 

Hughie Lee-Smith’s work has been exhibited in retrospectives at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (1988), the New Jersey State Museum, Trenton (1988), and at the Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Maine (1997). His work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, DC; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Detroit Institute of Art; the Studio Museum in Harlem; the San Diego Museum of Art; Howard University, Washington, DC; and the Schomburg Center of Research in Black Culture, New York, among others.

Born 1915, Eustis, Florida

Died 1999, Albuquerque, New Mexico

EDUCATION

1953

BS in Art Education, Wayne State University, Detroit

1938

Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio

John Huntington Polytechnic Institute, Cleveland, Ohio

Art School of the Detroit Society of Arts & Crafts, Detroit, Michigan

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2022

Karma, Los Angeles

Karma, New York

2013

Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan, Hughie Lee-Smith: Meditations 

2011

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, Hughie Lee-Smith: The 1950s, Major Paintings 

2000

June Kelly Gallery, New York, Memorial Exhibition 

1999

Lake County Historical Museum, Lake County, Florida 

1997

The Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, Maine, Hughie Lee-Smith: A Retrospective, organized and curated by Dr. Michael Culver 

Milton Rhodes Gallery, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Of time and space … paintings by Hughie Lee-Smith 

1996

Malcolm Brown Gallery, Shaker Heights, Ohio, Hughie Lee-Smith: Cleveland Visionary 

1995

Bristol-Myers Squibb Gallery, Princeton, New Jersey, Hughie Lee-Smith: Overview, 1949-1995  

1994

June Kelly Gallery, New York, Watercolors  

1993

Flushing Town Hall, New York, Hughie Lee-Smith Selected Paintings

1991

June Kelly Gallery, New York, New Paintings 

1990

Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina 

1989

June Kelly Gallery, New York, The Presence of Something Profound and Mysterious 

Armory Art Gallery, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 

1988

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey, Hughie Lee-Smith Retrospective Exhibition

Travelled to: The Cultural Center, Chicago; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Studio Museum,  Harlem, New York 

June Kelly Gallery, New York, Hughie Lee-Smith: The Romantic Realist 

Malcolm Brown Gallery, Shaker Heights, Ohio 

1987

Isobel Neal Gallery, Chicago 

1986

Art Center of Battle Creek, Battle Creek, Michigan 

1984

Malcolm Brown Gallery, Shaker Heights, Ohio 

Community Renewal Team Craftery Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut 

The Century Association, New York 

1982

Summit Gallery of Art, New York 

1977

Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan 

1974

San Giuseppe Gallery, College of Mount St. Joseph on-the-Ohio, St. Joseph, Ohio 

1973

Grand Central Art Gallery, New York 

1971

J.L. Hudson Company, Detroit 

Arwin Galleries, Detroit 

1969

Bergman Galleries, University of Chicago, Chicago 

1968

Grand Central Art Galleries, New York

1966

Detroit Artists Market, Detroit, Michigan 

Forsyth Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan 

1958

Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.  

Petite Gallery/Janet Nessler Gallery, New York 

1954

Anna Werbe Gallery, Detroit 

Forsythe Gallery, Ann Arbor, Michigan 

1953

Garelick Gallery, Detroit 

1950

Ten Thirty Gallery, Cleveland 

1945

South Side Community Art Center, Chicago 

Snowden Gallery, Chicago

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven

2022 

The Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, Our Walls: Real and Imagined 

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Malibu, California, The Cultivators: Highlights from the Kinsey African  American Art and History Collection 

Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Saginaw, Michigan, HAROLD NEAL & DETROIT AFRICAN  AMERICAN ARTISTS, 1945 Through The Black Arts Movement 

2021

The Art Students League, New York, Creating Community: Cinque Gallery Artists 

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting.

Travelled to: Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arizona 

Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Georgia, Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism

The David C. Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture of African Americans and the African Diaspora, College Park, Maryland, American Landscapes 

2019-20

Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Detroit Collects: Selections of African American Art from Private Collections 

2019

The Dayton Art Institute, Dayton, Ohio, For America: Paintings from the National Academy of Design, organized  in collaboration with the American Federation of Arts.

Travelled to: New Britain Museum of American Art, New  Britain, Connecticut; The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis,  Tennessee; New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico; Figge Art Museum, Davenport, Iowa; Crocker  Art Museum, Sacramento. 

Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York, Self in the City: Highlights from the Collections of the Hudson River  Museum and Art Bridges

Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, Black Refractions: Highlights from The Studio Museum  in Harlem.

Travelled to: Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina; Kalamazoo Institute of Arts,  Kalamazoo, Michigan; Smith College Museum of Art, Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts; Utah  Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Frye Art Museum, Seattle. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., African American Art in the 20th Century.

Travelled to:  Dubuque Museum of Art, Dubuque, Iowa; Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida; The Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Greensburg, Pennsylvania; Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas;  Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York. 

2018

Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio, African American Masterpieces: Permanent Collection Highlights

McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Something to Say: The McNay Presents 100 Years of African American Art  

2016

Muskegon Museum of Art, Muskegon, Michigan, Common Ground 

2014

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, Solitary Soul  

2012

David C. Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, Successions: Prints by African  American Artists from the Jean & Robert Steele Collection 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C., African-American Art: Harem Renaissance, Civil Rights  Era and Beyond 

2011

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, Otherworldliness  

Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage, Beachwood, Ohio, Hardship to Hope: African American Art from the Karamu  Workshop 

2008

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African American Art: 200 Years 

2006

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, Building Community: The African American Scene

Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, American Perspectives: Highlights of Works by African American Artists  from the Collection of the FIA 

2003

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, X  

2002

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IX 

2001

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VIII

Travelled to: Texas Southern University Museum, Houston

2000

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VII

Travelled to: Appleton Museum of Art, Ocala, Florida 

1999

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, VI

Travelled to: Flint Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan 

Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, African American Art in Chicago, 1900-1950 

1998

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, V

Travelled to: The Newcomb Art Gallery, Tulane University, New Orleans 

1997

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, IV

Travelled to: Fisk University Galleries, Nashville, Tennessee 

Katonah Museum of Art, Katonah, New York, Revisiting American Art: Works from the Collections of Historically  Black Colleges and Universities  

1996

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, III  

1995

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks, II 

Travelled to: Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California 

1994

Krasdale Gallery, White Plains, New York, Empowerment: The Art of African American Artists

Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, African-American Art: 20th Century Masterworks 

San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection of African American Art

Travelled to: El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso; Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University,  Atlanta; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga,  Tennessee 

1983

Evans-Tibbs Collection, Washington D.C., Surrealism and the Afro-American Artist

1978 

Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York/Chicago: WPA and the Black Artist

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Museum of African-American Art, Tampa, Florida 

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco 

Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, Los Angeles 

Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 

Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois 

The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio 

Canton Museum of Art, Canton, Ohio 

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio 

Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan 

Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, Michigan 

Grosse Pointe War Memorial Association, Michigan 

Flint Institute of Art, Flint, Michigan

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 

University of Michigan at Dearborn, Dearborn, Michigan 

Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 

Center for Creative Studies, College of Art and Design, Detroit, Michigan 

Atlanta University, Atlanta, Georgia 

Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina 

Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee 

Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee 

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts 

Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut 

National Academy of Design, New York 

Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 

The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York 

Chase Manhattan Bank, New York 

Forbes Magazine Collection, New York 

Neuberger Museum of Art, SUNY/Purchase, New York 

Kidder & Peabody Co., Inc., New York 

Lotos Club, New York 

Reader’s Digest, Pleasantville, New York 

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York 

The Century Association, New York 

U.S. Post Office, New York 

The State of New York, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., State Office Building, New York 

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Princeton, New Jersey 

AT&T, New Jersey 

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, New Jersey 

Alain Locke Society, Princeton University, New Jersey 

Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania 

Kutztown State College, Pennsylvania Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida 

Howard University Art Collection, Washington D.C. 

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C. 

The Navy Museum, US Navy Art Collection, Washington D.C. 

University of the District of Columbia, Washington D.C. 

National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C. 

University of the District of Columbia, Washington D.C. 

The Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C. 

The Evans-Tibbs Collection, Washington D.C. 

U.S. Navy Art Center, Navy Yard, Washington D.C. 

Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis, Maryland 

Museum of International Art, Sofia, Bulgaria 

Lagos Museum, Nigeria 

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. 

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago 

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens 

San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego 

Delaware Art Museum, Delaware 

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston

AWARDS

1998

Hughie Lee-Smith Day: January 16, 1998, Eustis, Florida 

Official Key to the City of Eustis, Florida

1996

Medal of Merit, Lotos Club

Benjamin West Clinedinst Medal, Artist’s Fellowship, Inc. 

PUBLICATIONS

2010

Hughie Lee-Smith (The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art)

Leslie King-Hammond, Hughie Lee-Smith

Pomegranate Communications, Petaluma, California

124 pages, hardcover

11 1/4 × 9 inches

1995

Hughie Lee-Smith: An Overview 1949-1995

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Princeton, New Jersey

24 pages

7 4/5 × 10 1/5 inches

1988

Hughie Lee-Smith: Retrospective Exhibition

New Jersey State Museum, Trenton

40 pages

8 3/5 × 11 inches

1988

Joining Forces: Hughie Lee-Smith and John W. Rhoden

Montclair State College Art Gallery, Montclair, New Jersey

16 pages

8 3/5 × 11 inches

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