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| name = Vincent D. Smith
| name = Vincent D. Smith
| birth_date = December 12, 1929
| birth_date = December 12, 1929
| birth_place = [[New York]]
| birth_place = [[Brooklyn]], [[New York City]], [[New York|New York State]]
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
| training = [[Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine]],
| training = [[Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine]],
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*[https://www.moma.org/artists/5495?locale=en Museum of Modern Art,] New York, New York<ref name=":3" />
*[https://www.moma.org/artists/5495?locale=en Museum of Modern Art,] New York, New York<ref name=":3" />
* N[https://gallery.newarkmuseum.org/view/people/asitem/S/256/displayName-asc;jsessionid=9E4169FBD0471911D34276C324AEAFBC?t:state:flow=10dbe8c0-6e35-4e0c-8ed3-1c470cb3a7df ewark Museum,] [[Newark, New Jersey]]<ref name=":3" />
*[https://gallery.newarkmuseum.org/view/people/asitem/S/256/displayName-asc;jsessionid=9E4169FBD0471911D34276C324AEAFBC?t:state:flow=10dbe8c0-6e35-4e0c-8ed3-1c470cb3a7df Newark Museum,] [[Newark, New Jersey]]<ref name=":3" />
*[https://www.artic.edu/artists/44829/vincent-smith Art Institute of Chicago,] [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]]
*[https://www.artic.edu/artists/44829/vincent-smith Art Institute of Chicago,] [[Chicago|Chicago, Illinois]]
*
*

Revision as of 21:55, 14 May 2019

Vincent D. Smith
BornDecember 12, 1929
Brooklyn, New York City, New York State
DiedDecember 27, 2003
NationalityAmerican
EducationSkowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine,

Vincent Dacosta Smith (December 12, 1929 – December 27, 2003) was an African-American artist, teacher, painter and printmaker. He was known for his vivid and colorful depictions of black life.

Life and Education

Vincent D. Smith was born on December 12, 1929, in Bedford-Stuyvesant[1] to Beresford Leopole Smith and Louise Etheline Todd. Both were immigrants from Barbados.[2] Growing up in Brownsville, Brooklyn, Smith drew what he saw around him. He attended an integrated school where he studied piano and the alto sax. Smith worked a range of jobs before he became a full-time artist. At 16, he worked for the Lackawanna Railroad repairing tracks. At 17, Smith enlisted in the army and traveled with his brigade for a year.[3] It wasn't until after his time in the army that Smith began to paint and printmaking.[4] At 22, Smith was working in a post office where he grew to be friends with fellow artist Tom Boutis. Boutis took Smith to a Paul Cézanne show at the Museum of Modern Art in 1951. After seeing the Cézanne show, Smith resigned from his position at the post office and began reading extensively about art. He studied at the Art Students League in New York with Reginald Marsh. Later, he began to sit in on classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, where the instructors would let him join in on the lessons and the criticisms.[3] After attending classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the Artists League, he was accepted and received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.[4] He studied there from 1953 to 1956. Beginning in 1954[5], he started taking official classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, also on a scholarship. He studied painting, etching, and wood prints there.[4] In 1959, Smith won the John Hay Whitney Fellowship which allowed him to travel to the Caribbean for a year.[6] During this year he was deeply inspired by the customs and lifestyle of the native people.[6] Throughout his life, Smith attended various art schools but it was not until turning 50 he returned to college to earn an official degree.[7]

Smith passed away on the December 27, 2003 from lymphoma complicated by pneumonia. Smith was aged 74.[7]

Artistic Career

Smith is a figurative painter who used abstractions and materiality to make something new.[8] Smith's work depicts the rhythms and intricacies of black life through his prints and paintings.[7] Many of his paintings and prints rely heavily on patterns.[8]

From 1967-1976 he taught at the Whitney Museum’s Art Resource Center.[2] Later in 1985, he taught printmaking at the Center for Art and Culture of Bedford Stuyvesant.

Over the course of his career, he had over 25 one-man shows and had his work shown in over 30 group shows.[7]

Awards and Honors

  • John Hay Whitney Fellowship - 1959
  • Artist in Residence, Smithsonian Conference Center - 1967
  • Grant, The American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York - 1968
  • Creative Public Service Award for the Cultural Council Foundation, New York -1971
  • National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities Travel Grant, New York - 1973
  • Childe Hassam Purchase Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York - 1973-1974
  • Thomas P. Clarke Prize, National Academy of Design, New York -1974
  • Windsor and Newton Award from the National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic , New York. - 1981
  • Artist-in-Residence, Kenkeleba House Gallery, New York. - 1985-86

Commissions/Projects[1]

  • "Impressions - Our World," Portfolio, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York 1974
  • Mural for Crotona/Tremont Social Service Center, The Human Resource Administration, New York, New York 1980
  • Mural for Oberia D. Dempsey Multi-Service Center of Central Harlem, New York, New York 1989

Book Illustrations:[1]

  • Amiri Baraka (LE Roi Jones) and Aminia Baraka The Music: Reflections on Jazz and Blues. William Morrow Company, New York, 1987
  • Amiri Baraka; The Kaleidoscopic Torch, James B. Gwynne, ed., Stepping Stones Press, 1985
  • Marguerite P. Dolch, Stories from Africa, Garrard Publishing Company, Campaign, Illinois, 1975

Selected Works

According to Ronald Smothers, Vincent D. Smith's work "stood as an expressionistic bridge between the stark figures of Jacob Lawrence and the Cubist and Abstract strains represented by black artists like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis." [7] Smith has described his own work as "a marriage between Africa and the West."[3] Over his life, he worked in both painting and printmaking.

Below are some selected works:

Selected Exhibitions

Vincent D. Smith had shown in a range of galleries and museums over his life-span. In 1970, he had his first individual exhibition at the Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. His first retrospective was in 1989 at the Schenectady Museum in Schenectady, New York.[2]

Solo Shows:

Group Shows:

Selected Collections


Further Reading

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g Patton, Sharon (1990). Riding on a Blue Note: monoprints and works on paper on jazz themes. Henry Street Settlement.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Smith, V. D (1994). Vincent D. Smith: An appreciation : January 25-February 24, 1994, Robeson Center Art Gallery, Robeson Campus Center, Rutgers University. Robeson Center Gallery.
  3. ^ a b c Smith, Vincent (15 November 1980). "A Painter Looks Back". New York Amsterdam News.
  4. ^ a b c "Library Shows Work of Young Artist". New York Amsterdam News. 15 February 1958.
  5. ^ St. James Guide to Black Artists. Gale. 1997. pp. 499–501.
  6. ^ a b "Whitney Fellowship Winners Announced". New York Amsterdam News. 27 June 1959.
  7. ^ a b c d e Smothers, Ronald (3 January 2004). "Vincent Smith, 74, Painter Who Portrayed Black Life".
  8. ^ a b Cotter, Holland (26 September 2003). "Art in Review".
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