Hughie Lee-Smith, Black painter 1950s [View all]

[Beringia]

1915 to 1999



“My earliest direct contact with painting was . . . as a ten-year-old student at the Cleveland Museum. The specific painting that made an impression was Ryder’s ‘Death Riding the Race Track.’ My early attraction to that macabre composition suggests a natural propensity to a romantic perception of reality. . . . In addition to this, in later years I have come to realize the unconscious influence of the Midwestern climate as a key factor in the development of my colour scheme. My predilection for cold, dark skies and sparse, flat landscapes in my painting is undoubtedly due in large measure to the long, continuously grey winters of my youth in Ohio, Michigan and Ontario.”
















https://www.michaelrosenfeldart.com/artists/hughie-lee-smith-1915-1999