Jenne Magafan

Back Fence with Bird. - Mid-Century - WPA Artist

1950

The fame, notoriety, and monetary value of an artist's work in today's market are not based on one's talent and vision. Factors such as marketing and media momentum play a defining r...

Exhibited: New York Society of Artist Sid Deutsch Owings-Dewey Fine Art It's Skyscraper City: 1918. The artist depicts a simultaneous interior and exerterior view.. Based on Cole...

An African village scene is characterized by bold colors and a punchy flat orange sky combined with a post-impressionist paint application for the tree and the house. In the foreground, we see an African mother with two children standing outside her "Home." The work is created by African American artist Vincent D. Smith. It is signed lower right, Vincent, showing homage to Vincent Van Gogh, from whom the art word borrows some influence. Clearly, Smith has developed his own personal style, combining an African American persona with an African subject matter. Original metal frame under glass. The uploaded video is coming up light. Use the still image as a reference for color. Vincent DaCosta Smith (December 12, 1929 – December 27, 2003) was an American artist, painter, printmaker and teacher. He was known for his depictions of black life. Early life Vincent DaCosta Smith was born on December 12, 1929, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant[1] neighborhood of Brooklyn, to Beresford Leopole Smith and Louise Etheline Todd. Both were immigrants from Barbados.[2] He was raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn and Smith drew what he saw around him.[citation needed] He attended an integrated school where he studied piano and the alto sax. 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 the age of 22, Smith was working in a post office where he grew to be friends with fellow artist Tom Boutis.[1] Art education Tom 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 of New York with Reginald Marsh.[citation needed] 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 Art Students League of New York, he was accepted and received a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine,[4] where he studied from 1953 to 1956. Beginning in 1954,[5] he started taking official classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, and studied painting, etching, and woodblock printmaking.[4] Career Smith was a figurative painter who used abstractions and materiality to make something new.[6] 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.[6] 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. In 1959, Smith won the John Hay Whitney Fellowship which allowed him to travel to the Caribbean for a year.[8] During this year he was deeply inspired by the customs and lifestyle of the native people.[8] 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] From 1967 until 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. Death and legacy Smith died in Manhattan on the December 27, 2003 from lymphoma and related complications.[7] Smith was aged 74.[7] His work is included in many public museum collections including Art Institute of Chicago,[9] Newark Museum of Art,[1] Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),[1] Metropolitan Museum of Art,[1] Yale University Art Gallery,[10] Davidson Art Center,[11] Fitzwilliam Museum,[12] Brooklyn Museum,[13] Albright-Knox Art Gallery,[14] Rhode Island School of Design Museum,[15] among others. Exhibitions Over the course of his career, he had over 25 one-man shows and had his work shown in over 30 group shows.[7] 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: 1974 - The Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine[2] 1974 - Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York[2] 1989 - Schenectady Museum (Retrospective 1964-1989), Schenectady, New York Awards and honors This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) 1959 – John Hay Whitney Fellowship, John Hay Whitney Foundation, New York City, New York[8] 1967 – Artist in Residence, Smithsonian Conference Center 1968 – Grant, The American Academy and National Institute of Arts and Letters, New York 1971 – Creative Public Service Award for the Cultural Council Foundation, New York 1973 – National Endowment of the Arts and Humanities Travel Grant, New York 1973-1974 – Childe Hassam Purchase Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York City, New York 1974 – Thomas P. Clarke Prize, National Academy of Design, New York 1981 – Windsor and Newton Award, National Society of Painters in Casein and Acrylic , New York. 1985-1986 – Artist-in-Residence, Kenkeleba House Gallery, New York. Works Below are some selected works: Study for Mural at Boys and Girls High School, 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York A Moment Supreme, 1972, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York The Triumph of B.L.S., 1973, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Jonkonnu Festival, 1996, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York Murals Mural for Crotona/Tremont Social Service Center, The Human Resource Administration, New York, New York 1980[1] Mural for Oberia D. Dempsey Multi-Service Center of Central Harlem, New York, New York 1989[1] Publications Print portfolios Impressions: Our World, Volume I (a portfolio of seven etchings - five with aquatint, two with embossing). Emma Amos, Benny Andrews, Vivian Browne, Eldzier Cortor...

This early work from 1955 by Dong Kingman N.A. is as surreal as it is a document of a place. The artist effectively captures a slice of American urban life but constructs the compo...

Antique American modernist abstract street scene oil painting. Oil on board. Framed. Image size, 12L x 7H.

A beautiful painting by Leonard Maurer (1912-1976), titled "Winter Garden #2", 1959. A captivating landscape in a loose, expressive style, masterfully d...

Albert Heckman Glasco Landscape, circa 1940 Signed lower right Oil on canvas 25 1/4 x 39 1/2 inches Albert Heckman was born in Meadville, Western Pennsylvania, 1893. He went to New York City to try his hand at the art world in 1915 after graduating from high school and landing a job at the Meadville Post Office. In 1917, at the age of 24, Heckman enrolled part-time in Teachers' College, Columbia University's Fine Arts Department to begin his formal art education. He worked as a freelance ceramic and textile designer and occasionally as a lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the early 1920s, at the age of almost 30, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia Teachers College. He was especially impacted by his instructor at Columbia, Arthur Wesley Dow. After graduating, he was hired by the Teachers' College as a Fine Arts instructor. He stayed with Columbia Teachers' College until 1929, when he left to attend the Leipzig Institute of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, Germany. Isami Doi (1903-1965), who was born in Hawaii, was arguably his most impressive student at Columbia. Doi is now regarded as one of the most prominent artists hailing from Hawaii. Heckman became an active member and officer of the Keramic Society and Design Guild of New York in the 1920s as part of his early commercial art career. The Society's mission was to share knowledge and showcase textile and ceramic design exhibits. In 1922, Heckman married Florence Hardman, a concert violinist. Mrs. Heckman's concert schedule during the 1920s kept Albert and Florence Heckman apart for a significant portion of the time, but they spent what little time they had together designing and building their Woodstock, New York, summer house and grounds. A small house and an acre of surrounding land on Overlook Mountain, just behind the village of Woodstock, were purchased by Albert and Florence Heckman at the time of their marriage. Their Woodstock home, with its connections, friendships, and memories, became a central part of their lives over the years, even though they had an apartment in New York City. Heckman's main artistic focus shifted to the house on Overlook Mountain and the nearby towns and villages, Kingston, Eddyville, and Glasco. After returning from the Leipzig Institute of Graphic Arts in 1930, Mr. Heckman joined Hunter College as an assistant professor of art. He worked there for almost thirty years, retiring in 1956. Throughout his tenure at Hunter, Mr. Heckman and his spouse spent the summers at their Woodstock residence and the winters in New York City. They were regular and well-known guests at the opera and art galleries in New York. Following his retirement in 1956, the Heckmans settled in Woodstock permanently, with occasional trips to Florida or Europe during the fall and winter. Mr. Heckman's close friends and artistic career were always connected to Woodstock or New York City. He joined the Woodstock art group early on and was greatly influenced by artists like Paul and Caroline Rohland, Emil Ganso, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Andre Ruellan, and her husband, Jack...

Artist/ School: French School, mid 20th century Title: The Birdcages Medium: oil painting on board, framed. framed: 15 x 21.75 inches Provenance: private collection, France Co...