In a series of three prints Hughie Lee-Smith mused about the role of the artist in American society during the Depression (see also MMA 1999.529.111). Should one stay in the studio creating lofty works of art and teaching, as the artist at the bottom of this compostion does? Or should one join the ranks of those activists confronting the economic and political issues of the day, as the textile worker (right) and union picketer (at top) suggest? For Lee-Smith, the answer was a combined "yes": "The late 1930s…found me employed on the Ohio WPA Art Project, working mainly in lithography. The artworks produced there derived their inspiration directly from my involvement in union activity and workers' demonstrations, as well as my role as an art instructor to disadvantaged youngsters at the [WPA's] Karamu House [in Cleveland]." Rendered in a Social Realist style the Artist's Life prints wed content and form to successfully convey their message.
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Title:Artist's Life, no. 1
Artist:Hughie Lee-Smith (American, Eustis, Florida 1915–1999 Albuquerque, New Mexico)
Date:1939
Medium:Lithograph
Dimensions:12 15/16 × 10 1/16 in. (32.9 × 25.5 cm)
Classification:Prints
Credit Line:Gift of Reba and Dave Williams, 1999
Object Number:1999.529.112
Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (lower margin, in graphite): Artists Life No. 1 Lee-Smith '39
[Sragow Gallery, New York, until 1991; sold on September 1, 1991 to Williams]; Reba and Dave Williams, New York (1991–99; their gift to MMA)
Newark Museum, held jointly at the Equitable Gallery, New York. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 10, 1992–February 28, 1993, no. 57.
Long Beach Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 4–August 8, 1993, no. 57.
Cambridge, England. Fitzwilliam Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 5–December 19, 1993, no. 57.
Albany. New York State Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 5–March 13, 1994, no. 57.
New Haven. Yale University Art Gallery. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," April 7–June 12, 1994, no. 57.
Louisville. Speed Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," July 12–September 4, 1994, no. 57.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," October 9–December 4, 1994, no. 57.
Baltimore Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 4–February 26, 1995, no. 57.
Charleston. Gibbes Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," March 26–May 21, 1995, no. 57.
Miami Beach. Bass Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," June 18–August 13, 1995, no. 57.
Little Rock. Arkansas Arts Center. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," September 10–November 5, 1995, no. 57.
Mobile, Ala. Fine Arts Museum of the South. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," December 3, 1995–January 28, 1996, no. 57.
Brooklyn Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," February 25–April 22, 1996, no. 57.
Art Institute of Chicago. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," May 17–July 14, 1996, no. 57.
Dallas Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," August 9–October 6, 1996, no. 57.
Saint Louis Art Museum. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," November 1, 1996–January 2, 1997, no. 57.
Atlanta. High Museum of Art. "Alone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–1940s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams," January 31–March 30, 1997, no. 57.
Hamilton, N. Y. Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. "Life Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 10–November 4, 2001, no. 23.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "African-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," January 15–May 4, 2003, extended to July 6, 2003, no. 33.
"Denver Art Museum to Show Works of Cleveland Artist." Cleveland Call and Post (July 27, 1939), p. 11 (unknown edition), calls it "Artists' Life No. 1" and notes its acceptance into the 54th Annual Show of the Denver Art Museum.
"Work Exhibited in New York." Detroit Free Press (January 18, 1942), p. 7, ill. (artist shown with lithograph), calls it "Artist's Life".
Geraldine Wojno Kiefer. "Visual Arts: Autonomy of the Real." Cleveland Edition (November 1–7, 1984), p. 24.
Leslie King-Hammond. Black Printmakers and the W.P.A. Exh. cat., Lehman College Art Gallery. Bronx, 1989, pp. 8, 33 (not this edition, collection Cleveland Public Library).
Reba and Dave Williams inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, pp. 33, 52, no. 57.
Leslie King-Hammond inAlone in a Crowd: Prints of the 1930s–40s by African-American Artists; From the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. Exh. cat., Newark Museum. New York, 1993, p. 15, fig. 10.
Romare Bearden and Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists from 1792 to the Present. New York, 1993, pp. 330–31, ill. (not this edition, Collection of Nathan Lasnik, University Heights, Ohio), date it about 1939 and note the work was made in Cleveland during the WPA.
Ellen Schulz in John Hunter. The Russell and Rowena Jelliffe Collection: Prints and Drawings from the Karamu Workshop 1929–1941. Exh. cat., Cleveland State University Art Gallery. Cleveland, 1994, unpaginated, ill. (not this edition).
Mary Ann Calo inLife Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Dewey F. Mosby. Exh. cat., Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. Hamilton, N. Y., 2001, p. 10.
Dewey F. Mosby and Jane Seney inLife Impressions: 20th-Century African American Prints from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Dewey F. Mosby. Exh. cat., Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University. Hamilton, N. Y., 2001, pp. 46–47, 66–68, no. 23, fig. 26, ill. frontispiece, misidentifies MMA no. as 1999.529.11.
Lisa Gail Collins inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 64, no. 33, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger inAfrican-American Artists, 1929–1945: Prints, Drawings, and Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2003, p. 59.
Lester Beall (American, Kansas City, Missouri 1903–1969 Brookfield, Connecticut)
1937
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