"Hughie Lee Smith" [September 20,1915-

Worked for the Ohio Works Progress Administration and the Ford factory in River Rouge during the 1930s and 1940s;did a series of lithographic prints;painted murals at the Great Lakes Naval Station in Illinois;
taught art at Karamu House,Cleveland,late 1930s,the Grosse Pointe War Memorial in Michigan,1955-56,Princeton County Day School,New Jersey,1963-65,Howard University,Washington DC,1969-71,The Art Students League,New York City,1972-87,and elsewhere.Works shown in museums,Schools,schools,galleries,and collection across the U.S.,including the American Negro Exposition,Chicago;Detriot Artists Market;Cleveland Museum of  Art;Whitney Museum of American Art;Museum of Modern Art;the June Kelly Gallery,New York City;and the Evans-Tibbs collection,Washington,DC.
Like his paintings Hughie presented a riddle.Although his works were exhibited at museums,schools,and galleries around the United States,earned him many honors and awards,and were hung on the set of the Cosby Show Show,Hughie did not enjoy a major solo exhibition of his work until fifty years after he began painting.
His first retrospective exhibition--at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton in 1988-occurred when he was 73.
Unlike  contemporary,painter Jacob Lawrence,Hughie didn't receive much attention as a young artist.He slowly,gained national recognition as he produced a steady stream of oil paintings.He created an impressive series of lithographic prints and was commissioned by the U.S. Navy to paint several murals.
His works,which often featured the fantastic elements of magical realism and surrealism,are well known for their hard-hitting social commentary.Many critics have observed that his paintings bear a strong resemblance to the works of Italy's Giorgio de Chirico & American artists Edward Hooper.
Hughie did not receive a great deal of attention during his lifetime for a number of reasons.
First,his paintings often confronted views with a world where African Americans and white people maintained a cautious or uneasy distance from one another.Second,his work was mainly shown in African American art exhibits and for many years remained largely unrecognized in mainstream art circles.Third,he chose to paint figuratively at a time when abstract expressionism was at its height.
Hughie artistic did not pass completely unnoticed.During the 1980's he was awarded a day in his honor in Cleveland,Ohio and given the key to the Hartford,Connecticut.He also received honors from the Maryland Commission on Afro-American History & Culture,and prizes,from the National Academy of Design & Audubon Artists.In 1996,the Lotos Club awarded him with its Medal of Merit and,that same year,Hughie was presented  with the Benjamin West Clinedinst Medal from the Artists Fellowship inc.
In 1988,a retrospective of Hughie works were shown at the New Jersey State Museum.Works selective for the exhibit  included his depictions of alienated youth during the 1940s,his desolate landscapes of the 1950s & 1960's,and his paintings of isolated African Americans and white people confronting or refusing to confront one another.While allusions to the isolation of African Americans are presents,the paintings also portrayed the inability of some human beings to make contact with each othe.Accordings to some art critics,
what made Hughie unique was his ability to fuse the African American experience with his own brand of surrealism.
In 1994,the City of New York commissioned him to paint the official portrait of David Dinkins,the former mayor of New York City.The portrait was completed and hung in City Hall.Hughie died in Albuquerque, New Mexico after battling cancer.