Dreams Myths and Realities: The Work of Vincent Smith

The Fire Next Time, 1968, oil and sand on canvas, 30 x 3 6 " Collection of the artist. Dr eam s Myt hs and Real i ti es Nancy E. Green Journal of Contemporary African Art n a 1973 NewYork Times review, criticJohnCanaday suggested that a group exhibition of Jacob Lawrence, Benny Andrews, Romare Bearden, and Vincent Smith would be of interest, for"... both their unity and their individuality would be as apparent as their Blackness would be triumphant."l Over twenty-five years later, Canaday's endorsement and hisinsistence that he would "put Mr. Smith at the top of the list"of these four artists reverberates in Smith's enduranceas an artist and chronicler of an age. Smithisa survivor, a man whohasspent his life relating the narrative of the African-American experience on canvas and paper, a visual poet and storyteller. Smith's world is peopled with both the mundane and extraordinary, and he captures the pulseof his Black community withtightly composed images, vibrantwithcolor, texture and the natural rhythmof his line. It isa formidable bodyof work, tantalizing and compelling, showing richness of Smith's creative achievement. Atan early age, Vincent Smithabsorbed a strongsense of the many strandsof his Black cultural heritage. Hispaternal grandfather owned a large farm and quarryin Barbados and hisfatherworked on that farm and in the oil fields until emigrating to the States with his wife in the 1920s. Born in J929in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Vincent Smithwas raised in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn in a neighborhood often familiarly depicted in his early paintings. As a child, his family attended the African Orthodox Church. He studied music and played alto saxophone and piano, and although he did not continue his lessons, this experience would translate into a lifelong love and appreciation of the richstrainsof jazzand blues, be-bop,dixieland, funk, and doo-wop. In his mid-teens, Smithdroppedout of school, travelling around a bit, working a couple of weeks repairing tracks on the Lackawanna Railroad, followed bya yearin the Army stationedin the South,an eyeBlack Power Conference, 1968, oil and sand on canvas, 16 x 30·, Collection of the artist opening experience which sparked his early involvement in the Civil Rights movement. It was in 1952, while he was working for the Post Office, that a friend invited himalongto visit the Cezanne retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.Just ascezanne had inspired theCubists nearly fifty years before, the experience literally changed the courseof Smith's life. Ashe remembers,"I cameaway so moved witha feeling that I had beenin touchwith something sacred.',2 Soonafter, Smithquit his postal job and began to paint in earnest. He briefly attended classes at the Art Students League under Reginald Marsh, an association that infected the youngartist with some of his teacher's nonchalant and enthusiastic approach to the city. Smith also began droppingin at the Brooklyn Museum ArtSchool, where heinformally sat in on classes and met Walter Williams, with whom he later shareda studio in Manhattan. In the summerof 1955, Smithreceived a scholarship and attendedtheSkowhegan School in Maine where he met Ben Shahn, Sidney Simon, Willard Cummings, and Marguerite and William Zorach. Thatsameyear, hewasawarded a scholarship to enroll officially in the Brooklyn Museum Art School. At that time, Smith remembered, the Brooklyn Museum was oneof thefew museums in this country to show the sculptureof African artists. This made a moving impact on Smith and the result was his painting Fallg \\'01/1aII with Children (1955), one of two paintings on an African theme that he did during this period. The early fifties was a heady time for a young artist living in Greenwich Village, and Smithdeveloped influential relationships with manyother aspiring Black artistsand writers. Besides Williams, he also became friendly with Richard Mayhew, CliffJackson, Harvey Cropper, Sam Middleton, Earl Miller, AI Hicks Amiri Baraka, aswell as musicians Charlie "Bird" Parker, Art Blakey, Thelonious Monk, Randy Weston, Nka ·59 The Triumph ofB.L.S., 1973, etching, 13.75 x 17.875 ", Courtesy of G. W. Einstein Company, Inc., NY. Max Roach, and, later, Lester Young. As Smith recalls, "We were a strange group because people didn't know what to make of us. They were used to Black musicians and performers, but the...