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Vincent Smith - Seventies New York - Exhibitions - Alexandre Gallery

Vincent Smith, Attrition, 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 44 x 48 inches

Alexandre Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of Vincent Smith’s (American, 1929 – 2003) work from the early 1970s. This focused show will include six medium-sized paintings and one woodcut print that depict tenements and streets during this tumultuous period in New York. Using his mature style of layering the canvas with rough sand-thickened paint and collage elements to create stucco-like surfaces in bright deep brick reds and blacks, Smith captures the rhythms and intricacies of the city in his signature expressionist social realist style. Each includes a figure or more, often seen through a window or doorway, seemingly trapped or imprisoned in their surroundings. Titles include Home From Vietnam, On a Sunny Day, The Projects, and The Super.

The noted artist and art historian David C. Driskell has written on this work:

. . . what is gently revealed is an impressive and dynamic display of black history, memory and creative workmanship in a very unique visual experience. Compositions . . . bring us face to face with the social circumstance of a nation, indeed, a people who are poor, hungry, deprived and limited by the seemingly unchanged social order.

In a 2004 obituary for Vincent Smith the New York Times wrote:

Mr. Smith, who had more than 25 one-man shows was among about a dozen prominent members of the Black Arts movement of the 1960s and 70s. A figurative painter with an often subtle, social thrust, he placed his subjects in a stylized way against geometric, textured and intricately colored backgrounds. He stood as an expressionist bridge between the stark figures of Jacob Lawrence and the Cubist and Abstractions represented by black artists like Romare Bearden and Norman Lewis.

Smith was a Brooklyn native who spent time working as a railroad and postal worker before serving in the Army. He turned seriously to painting in 1953. In 1956 he was awarded a scholarship to attend the Skowhegan School. In 1969 the Studio Museum in Harlem presented the first museum exhibition of his paintings.

Installations

Installations Thumbnails
Photograph showing a view of an exhibition space, with three paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a view of an exhibition space, with three paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with three paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a view of an exhibition space, with three paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a view of an exhibition space, with three paintings hanging on white walls
Photograph showing a corner view of an exhibition space, with three paintings hanging on white walls

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Painting of an abstracted figure inside a window, set into a deep red, textured wall

Cane, ca. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 46 x 56 inches

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Abstracted, expressionist painting of two figure inside a window set into a deep red, textured wall

The Super, 1972, oil, sand, and collage on canvas, 55 x 40 inches

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Abstracted, expressionist painting with a figure standing on a darkly-lit street with his mouth open as if screaming and yellow light emanating from the building behind him

Attrition, 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 44 x 48 inches

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Abstracted, expressionist painting of a figure standing in front of a building with two bar-covered windows and an open door with a vase of flowers inside

Apple Pies for the Kids, 1971, oil and sand on canvas, 48 x 38 1/2 inches

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Expressionist painting of a roughly textured red surface, with window-like shapes

On a Sunny Day, ca. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 43 1/2 x 49 1/2 inches

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Abstract, expressionist painting with a figure looking out from a window in the center of a dark red, textured ground

Home from Vietnam, ca. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 49 x 41 inches

Inquire
Painting of an abstracted figure inside a window, set into a deep red, textured wall

Cane, ca. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 46 x 56 inches

Abstracted, expressionist painting of two figure inside a window set into a deep red, textured wall

The Super, 1972, oil, sand, and collage on canvas, 55 x 40 inches

Abstracted, expressionist painting with a figure standing on a darkly-lit street with his mouth open as if screaming and yellow light emanating from the building behind him

Attrition, 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 44 x 48 inches

Abstracted, expressionist painting of a figure standing in front of a building with two bar-covered windows and an open door with a vase of flowers inside

Apple Pies for the Kids, 1971, oil and sand on canvas, 48 x 38 1/2 inches

Expressionist painting of a roughly textured red surface, with window-like shapes

On a Sunny Day, ca. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 43 1/2 x 49 1/2 inches

Abstract, expressionist painting with a figure looking out from a window in the center of a dark red, textured ground

Home from Vietnam, ca. 1972, oil and sand on canvas, 49 x 41 inches