Hughie Lee-Smith Sold at Auction Prices

Painter, Wall painter, Lithographer, b. 1914 - d. 1999

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      • Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999): Flight II
        Nov. 21, 2024

        Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999): Flight II

        Est: $15,000 - $20,000

        Oil on canvas, 1985, signed 'Lee-Smith' lower left. 18 x 24 in., unframed. Note: Our thanks to the artist's daughter for providing the date of execution for this work.

        STAIR
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Negro Child.
        Oct. 03, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Negro Child.

        Est: $20,000 - $30,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Negro Child. Oil on masonite board, 1953. 254x203 mm; 10x8 inches. Signed and dated in oil, lower left. Provenance: private collection, Michigan; private collection, Massachusetts, acquired at Swann Galleries, October 9, 2014. Exhibited: Garelick's Gallery, Detroit, with a partially typed label, attached to the frame verso, (supplying the title).

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (The Dancer).
        Oct. 03, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (The Dancer).

        Est: $100,000 - $150,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (The Dancer). Oil on masonite board, 1948. 760x605 mm; 23½x17¾ inches. Signed and dated in oil, upper left. Provenance: private collection, California. This beautiful painting is a scarce 1940s figurative painting by Hughie Lee-Smith. His depiction of a resting ballet dancer is a fascinating subject. The painting stands apart from the figurative paintings, primarily nude studies, that are known from this period. The austere space, cool palette and subtle tonal brushwork show Lee-Smith's growing sophistication and suggest the stylization and surrealism that characterize his mature work. This scene recalls Lee-Smith's early experiences in dance and theater while working at the Playhouse Settlement (named Karamu House in 1941) during the WPA period in Cleveland. Lee-Smith taught art at Karamu House in the late 1930s in return for the full scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art (now the Art Institute of Cleveland) that the Gilpin Players awarded him in 1935. Inspired by the Gilpin Players, a black acting troupe, Lee-Smith also co-founded an inter-racial modern dance troupe there. While living in Detroit, Lee-Smith was actively exhibiting his work in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit in the late 1940s - his first solo exhibition was at the Southside Community Art Center of Chicago in 1945. In 1948-49, Lee-Smith was working in the Ford factory at River Rouge in Dearborn, MI. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he used funds from the G.I. Bill to complete his bachelor's degree at Wayne State University in Detroit in 1953.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Frederick Douglass.
        Oct. 03, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Frederick Douglass.

        Est: $5,000 - $7,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Frederick Douglass. Graphite and pencil on wove paper, circa 1976. 432x356 mm; 17x14 inches (sheet). Signed in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. This drawing is a preparatory study for Hughie Lee-Smith's 1976 portrait painting Frederick Douglass, commissioned by the Banneker-Douglas Museum, Annapolis, MD.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Faces, Shadows and Folded Screen).
        Oct. 03, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Faces, Shadows and Folded Screen).

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Faces, Shadows and Folded Screen). Watercolor and ink on wove paper, circa 1993-9. 257x355 mm; 10⅛x14 inches. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist, with the ink stamp verso; thence by descent, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • Hughie Lee-Smith, 1915-1999, Avocado and Banana
        Sep. 14, 2024

        Hughie Lee-Smith, 1915-1999, Avocado and Banana

        Est: $35,000 - $45,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith 1915-1999 Avocado and Banana 1975 acrylic on canvas 15-3/4 x 19-3/4 inches signed and dated Provenance: private collection, Detroit, MI

        Black Art Auction
      • Hughie Lee-Smith, 1915-1999, Storm
        Sep. 14, 2024

        Hughie Lee-Smith, 1915-1999, Storm

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith 1915-1999 Storm 1939 linocut on paper 5-3/4 x 8-1/2 inches (image) 9-3/4 x 11-1/2 inches (sheet) signed, titled, dated Label verso: Karamu Studio of Karamu House, 2239 E. 38th St. Cleveland, Ohio Lee-Smith made another print the same year, titled Landscape No. 1, which is similar and he also exhibited it at Karamu. This is an extremely rare, early, and desirable image by Lee-Smith from his time in Cleveland.

        Black Art Auction
      • Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Watercolor on Paper, 1957, "Landscape (Barn)", H 12.25" W 16.75"
        Sep. 13, 2024

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Watercolor on Paper, 1957, "Landscape (Barn)", H 12.25" W 16.75"

        Est: $6,000 - $8,000

        Signed and dated lower right. Frame Measurements H 22.5" W 28.5" Provenance: Gift from the Artist to a Private Collector, Detroit, Michigan; By descent to Prominent Art Collector, Detroit, Michigan.

        DuMouchelles
      • Hughie Lee-Smith, The Cliff No. 2
        May. 22, 2024

        Hughie Lee-Smith, The Cliff No. 2

        Est: $30,000 - $50,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith The Cliff No. 2 oil on canvas 16.125 h x 24 w in (41 x 61 cm) Signed to upper left corner 'Lee-Smith'. Provenance: Janet Nessler Gallery, New York | Acquired in the Detroit metropolitan area in 1968, Private Collection | Thence by descent This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

        Rago Arts and Auction Center
      • Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999), "Storm," 1939
        May. 07, 2024

        Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999), "Storm," 1939

        Est: $3,000 - $5,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999) "Storm," 1939 Linoleum cut on paper From the edition of unknown size Signed, titled, and dated in pencil in the lower margin: Hughie Lee-Smith

        John Moran Auctioneers
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man in Red Bandana.
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man in Red Bandana.

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man in Red Bandana. Watercolor on thick cream wove paper, circa 1993. 181x260 mm; 7⅛x10 ¼ inches. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Study of a Woman in a Landscape).
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Study of a Woman in a Landscape).

        Est: $30,000 - $40,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Study of a Woman in a Landscape). Oil and pencil on linen canvas, 1991. 457x559 mm; 18x22 inches. Signed in oil, lower left. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner; acquired from Swann Auction Galleries, December 10, 2020, private collection, California. This painting epitomizes the optimisim found in Hughie Lee-Smith's late-career painting. The peaceful atmosphere of the expansive sky above a coastal landscape is punctuated only by the movement of the billowing clouds and fluttering hair of the young woman. This work represents the final period of Lee-Smith's body of work - his enigmatic and isolated figures are now actors in landscapes full of intrigue and beauty.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Woman Singing.
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Woman Singing.

        Est: $3,000 - $5,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Woman Singing. Pencil on wove paper, circa 1980-85. 305x229 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. Another drawing of this same subject was sold at Swann Auction Galleries, October 7, 2010, lot 116.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Ball Player.
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Ball Player.

        Est: $150,000 - $250,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Ball Player. Oil on linen canvas, 1970. 610x813 mm; 24x32 inches. Signed in oil, lower left. Provenance: collection of the artist, New York; the estate of the artist; acquired from Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, private collection, Georgia. Exhibited: Three Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, Archibald John Motley, Jr., Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, May 22 - July 17, 1988; Hughie Lee-Smith: A Retrospective, Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, Maine, July 1 - August 1, 1997 (traveling exhibition); Stages of Influence: The Universal Theatre of Hughie Lee-Smith, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, February 6 - June 3, 2001. Illustrated: Michael Culver, Hughie Lee-Smith: A Retrospective, Ogunquit Museum of American Art; Hilton Als/Lauren Haynes/Leslie King-Hammond/Steve Locke. Hughie Lee-Smith, Karma, New York, p. 221. Ball Player is a significant, mid-career painting by Hughie Lee-Smith and depicts an essential aspect of his oeuvre. Throughout his practice, Lee-Smith has portrayed youth playing or improvising games, from balancing sticks and tires to flying kites and playing ball games. His subjects find moments of pleasure and escape despite their environs - similar scenes are found in his Street Scene, 1952 and Along the Tracks, 1953. Here Lee-Smith depicts a youth playing hand ball in a particularly desolate urban space. A very similar boarded-up arched entrance appears in the 1970s Lee-Smith paintings Woman with Balloons and Wall Variation II. Lee-Smith effectively created a new type of American landscape - an existential urban space in which the Black figure was the protagonist. His combination of figure painting and social-realist depiction is an important precursor to the paintings of Ernie Barnes and Kerry James Marshall.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Desolation.
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Desolation.

        Est: $3,000 - $5,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Desolation. Lithograph on cream wove paper, circa 1937-39. 184x248 mm; 7¼x9¾ inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered 7/27 in pencil, lower margin. Published by the Federal Art Project, WPA, Cleveland. A very good, dark impression of this scarce print; another impression of Desolation is in the GSA Fine Arts Collection at Case Western Reserve University.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Portrait on a Palette).
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Portrait on a Palette).

        Est: $5,000 - $7,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Portrait on a Palette). Oil on a wooden artist's palette, circa 1970s. Approximately 305x400 mm; 12 ½x15¾ inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Provenance: private collection, Hoboken, NJ; acquired at Rago Auctions, February 9, 2008; private collection, Philadelphia. Exhibited: The Palette Reveals the Artist: Grumbacher Palette Collection, The Long Island Museum, October 30, 2004 - January 30, 2005, The Butler Institute of American Art, March 13 - May 1, 2005, The Art Students League of New York, June 1 - 27, 2005, with the labels on the frame back.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Woman on Tipped Stool).
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Woman on Tipped Stool).

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Woman on Tipped Stool). Graphite and pencil on buff wove paper, 1938. 305x229 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to a private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Bather.
        Apr. 04, 2024

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Bather.

        Est: $75,000 - $100,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Bather. Oil on masonite board, 1954. 262x362 mm; 10⅜x14¼ inches. Incised signature and date in oil, lower left. Provenance: gift of the artist to Cornelia Foulkrad (the model for the bather), Detroit, MI; Seth Taffae Fine Art, New York; private collection. Illustrated: Leslie King-Hammond, "Hughie Lee-Smith," Pomegranate Press, California, 2010, plate 27; p. 48. Hughie Lee-Smith's painting, Bather, is an intimate shoreline scene of three figures at a lake-side beach. Lee-Smith's composition, with its diagonal alignment and uniform spatial alignment of the figures, gives a broad sense of depth perception. In her 2010 monograph, Dr. Leslie King-Hammond writes, " Bather is stunning in the simplicity of its spacious, airy landscape, yet startling in the brevity of a single gesture; why is the subject hiding her face?" King-Hammond p. 46.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Oil on Canvas "Still Life with Wine Bottle And Fruit", H 26" W 18"
        Nov. 17, 2023

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Oil on Canvas "Still Life with Wine Bottle And Fruit", H 26" W 18"

        Est: $7,000 - $10,000

        Signed lower left. Still life arrangement with wine bottle, pears and oranges on silver tray. Frame Measurements: H 30" W 22". Provenance: Property from the Estate of Frances Alger Boyer, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI; By Descent to Present Owner, Grosse Pointe Farms, MI.

        DuMouchelles
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man on a Bench Reading.
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man on a Bench Reading.

        Est: $25,000 - $35,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man on a Bench Reading. Oil on linen canvas, 1998-99. 711x864 mm; 28x34 inches. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. The enigmatic motif of a person seated on a bench with a placard appears in several of Hughie Lee-Smith's late paintings, including Silhouette, 1995 and Silhouette and Shadow, 1997.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Harriet Tubman.
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Harriet Tubman.

        Est: $5,000 - $7,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Harriet Tubman. Pencil on wove paper, circa 1980. 279x216 mm; 11x8 1/2 inches. Signed in pencil, lower left. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. This drawing was a preparatory study for Hughie Lee-Smith's 1980 portrait painting Harriet Tubman commissioned by the Banneker-Douglas Museum, Annapolis, MD.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Frederick Douglass.
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Frederick Douglass.

        Est: $5,000 - $7,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Frederick Douglass. Graphite and pencil on wove paper, circa 1976. 356x330 mm; 14x13 inches. Signed in pencil, lower left. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. This drawing was a preparatory study for Hughie Lee-Smith's 1976 portrait painting Frederick Douglass commissioned by the Banneker-Douglas Museum, Annapolis, MD.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man, Facing Left.
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man, Facing Left.

        Est: $3,000 - $5,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man, Facing Left. Oil monotype on wove paper, 1966. 367x235 mm; 13 1/4x9 1/4 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man in Green Bandana.
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man in Green Bandana.

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Young Man in Green Bandana. Watercolor on thick cream wove paper, circa 1993. 181x260 mm; 7 1/8x10 1/4inches, full margins. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Torso and Ribbon.
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Torso and Ribbon.

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Torso and Ribbon. Pencil on wove paper, circa 1986-87. 203x279 mm; 8x11 inches. Signed in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. This image of a classical statue of a male torso and a ribbon appears in both Lee-Smith's 1986 painting Prelude and his 1987 Bondage.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Two Young Men on a Beach).
        Oct. 19, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Two Young Men on a Beach).

        Est: $120,000 - $180,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Two Young Men on a Beach). Oil on masonite board, 1954. 610x914 mm; 18x24 inches. Incised signature and date in oil, upper left. Provenance: private collection, Florida. This excellent, evocative painting by Hughie Lee-Smith epitomizes the artist's career-defining body of work from Detroit in the early 1950s. The year earlier, Lee-Smith was awarded by the Detroit Institute of Arts its prestigious Founders Prize, a national painting award, for his painting The Piper, 1953, now in their permanent collection. Painting with command of the medium, Lee-Smith here deftly displays his mature style of the mid-1950s. In this imaginary landscape, he explores the tension and space between two crouching figures on a lakeside beach - a young white man in the foreground and a young black man at the center right. Lee-Smith has included many elements that he will use to construct his scenes in the years to come: including the telephone poles, a downed wire, a distant shore line at the horizon and a beautiful but forbidding sky.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • Hughie Lee-Smith, Still Life with Potted Plant
        May. 18, 2023

        Hughie Lee-Smith, Still Life with Potted Plant

        Est: $5,000 - $8,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith Still Life with Potted Plant 1944 oil on canvas 20 h x 16 w in (51 x 41 cm) Signed and dated to upper right 'Hughie Lee Smith Jan '44'. Signed, dated and inscribed to verso 'To Leroy, With Memories of Ford Production Foundry Days, Hughie Lee Smith Jan '44'. This work will ship from Lambertville, New Jersey.

        Rago Arts and Auction Center
      • Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Seascape, 1954 Oil on Masonite 19 x 36 i
        May. 12, 2023

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Seascape, 1954 Oil on Masonite 19 x 36 i

        Est: $80,000 - $120,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Seascape, 1954 Oil on Masonite 19 x 36 inches (48.3 x 91.4 cm) Signed and dated lower right: Lee-Smith / 54 Property of an Important Midwestern Collector PROVENANCE: Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York; Jonathan Boos Gallery, New York; Acquired by the present owner from the above. EXHIBITED: Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California , "Exaltations: 20th Century Masterworks by African-American Artist," June 3-August 29, 1995. Hughie Lee-Smith is renowned for his highly realistic and somewhat surreal paintings of figures in desolate urban landscapes that are fraught with psychological tension. Often compared to Giorgio de Chirico and Edward Hopper, the artist often implied social tensions through an atmosphere of psychological alienation in his paintings. In his own words: "...I began to lose my youthful dream of a better world-free of racism, free of the threat of instantaneous cremation of the bomb-and feed on a slow burning disillusionment. As a consequence, my work turned inward, and I began to seek some sort of essence to it all." Lee-Smith was born in Eustis, Florida and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He received early artistic training at the Karamu House, the Cleveland School of Art (later renamed the Cleveland Institute of Art), and the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts School. From 1938 to 1939 Lee-Smith was employed by the Ohio Federal Arts Project. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he used funds from the G.I. Bill to earn his B.S. from Wayne State University in Detroit (1953). Although his enigmatic work garnered critical recognition at group exhibitions and won numerous prizes, he largely supported himself by teaching in a variety of settings. He left the Midwest in 1958 for New York, living in the East Village while teaching in the Princeton, New Jersey school system. From 1969 to 1971, he was artist-in-residence and then acting art department chair at Howard University, during a period when the Black Arts Movement was in ascendancy. Lee-Smith also spent fifteen years as an instructor at the Art Students League. Inspired by the urban blight he encountered in Detroit, Lee-Smith created mesmerizing scenes of desolation and isolation. Lee-Smith acknowledges that his experience of solitude may be connected to his black identity and that his sense of disconnection is largely unconscious. He states, "In my case, aloneness, I think, has stemmed from the fact that I'm black. Unconsciously it has a lot to do with a sense of alienation." (https://americanart.si.edu) Despite his powerful expressions of concern about racial inequalities, he uses his art to convey feelings about his broader social and cultural rifts that affect all people. Throughout his career, the artist has remained fascinated by humanity's relationship with the world. His works typically feature black and white characters who are alone in their surroundings and disconnected from each other. Seascape of 1954 is an enigmatic work that showcases the artist's mature style of realism and surrealism first developed in the early 1950s. The dreamlike scene depicts the rocky shores of a lake, perhaps Michigan or nearby Ontario, places he often observed for pictorial inspiration. On a dilapidated wooden pier, a solitary young woman wearing a green dress stands in a graceful, dancer-like pose. As many of Lee-Smith's works are autobiographical, the female figure may represent his first wife, Mabel Louise Everett. The couple had divorced a year prior to the completion of Seascape. Facing the viewer, the woman's body is half illuminated by the fading sunlight that casts dark shadows throughout the foreground. Juxtaposed with the darkness are tall, upright sticks with fluttering red ribbons dancing in the breeze. The lively ribbons

        Heritage Auctions
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915-1999) The Other Side oil on canvas 36 x 48 in. (91.4
        Apr. 21, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915-1999) The Other Side oil on canvas 36 x 48 in. (91.4

        Est: $50,000 - $70,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915-1999) The Other Side oil on canvas 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm.)

        Christie's
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Landscape No. 1.
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Landscape No. 1.

        Est: $5,000 - $7,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Landscape No. 1. Linoleum cut on cream wove paper, 1939. 229x267 mm; 9x10 1/2 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and numbered "46" in pencil, lower margin. Provenance: the artist; Russell and Rowena Jelliffe, Cleveland (founders of the settlement house in Cleveland that became Karamu House); by descent, Dr. Roger and Joyce Jelliffe, Pasadena, CA; estate of Joyce Jelliffe, Pasadena, CA (2021); private collection, Cleveland. Exhibited: Karamu Studio of Karamu House, Cleveland, with the original printed label on a fragment of the backing board. Lee-Smith produced his first important prints at Karamu House in Cleveland in the late 1930s. Founded as a "settlement house" in 1915 by Oberlin College and University of Chicago graduates Rowena and Russell Jeliffe, Karamu House (as it was later renamed) was an important center for the training of African American artists in the 1930s and 1940s, and was sponsored by the Works Progress Administration for a time. Landscape No. 1 is an abstracted and modernist interpretation of the Central neighborhood surrounding Karamu House. An exhibition exploring the history of Black artists who worked at Karamu House is currently being organized by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Promise.
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Promise.

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Promise. Color lithograph on cream wove paper, 1989. 590x432 mm; 23 1/4x17 inches, full margins. A hors commerce, aside from the edition of 100. Signed and inscribed "HC" in pencil, lower margin. Printed by J. K. Fine Art Editions, New York, with the blind stamp, lower left.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Fugue.
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Fugue.

        Est: $3,000 - $5,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Fugue. Color lithograph on wove paper, 1996. 559x838 mm; 22x33 inches, full margins. Artist's proof, aside from the edition of 175. Signed, dated, and inscribed "To My Darling Wife Patricia" in pencil, lower margin. Printed and published by J.K. Fine Arts, New York, with the blind stamp, lower left.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Nude.
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Nude.

        Est: $30,000 - $40,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Nude. Oil on masonite board, 1949. 610x457 mm; 24x18 inches. Signed and dated in oil, upper right. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. Exhibited: Three Masters: Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith, Archibald John Motley, Jr., Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, May 22 - July 17, 1988, with the exhibiton label verso. This early oil painting is one of the artist's few known nude paintings. This modern nude shows the development of Hughie Lee-Smith's painting of the figure by the late 1940s. Lee-Smith was actively exhibiting his work in Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit in the late 1940s. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he used funds from the G.I. Bill to complete his bachelor's degree at Wayne State University in Detroit in 1953.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Man).
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Man).

        Est: $3,000 - $5,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Man). Monoprint on thin wove paper, circa 1970. 280x203 mm; 11x8 inches, full margins. Signed in ink, lower left. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection. Exhibited: Stella Jones Gallery, New Orleans, with the gallery label on the frame back.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Faces, Shadows and Folded Screen).
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Faces, Shadows and Folded Screen).

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Faces, Shadows and Folded Screen). Watercolor and ink on wove paper, circa 1993-9. 257x355 mm; 10 1/8x14 inches. Provenance: the collection of the artist; the estate of the artist, with the ink stamp verso; thence by descent, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Ribbon.
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Ribbon.

        Est: $120,000 - $180,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Ribbon. Oil on linen canvas, circa 1960. 457x610 mm; 18x24 inches. Signed in oil, lower right recto. Titled in pencil on the stretcher bars, verso. Provenance: acquired from the Robert Henry Adams Fine Art, Chicago, private collection, Pennsylvania; acquired from the Surovek Gallery, Palm Beach; private collection, with the gallery labels on the frame back. This beautiful lakeshore scene is an excellent example of Hughie Lee-Smith's mid-career painting. The Ribbon epitomizes Lee-Smith's unique vision of a modern, existential landscape with Surrealist undertones. Lee-Smith returned often to show his work and teach in Detroit after moving to New York in 1958. Lee-Smith was represented in New York by the Petite Gallery and then Janet Nessler Gallery through the 1960s. In the 1960s, Lee-Smith continued to mine his experiences on the shores and beaches of Michigan and Ontario for his painting subjects. Lee-Smith revisits a familiar pairing of a young man and a young woman in a red dress - also found in Poet #4, 1954 and Two Figures at the Beach, 1955 . He also defines the space and mood with many of his signature elements: the fluttering ribbon, separated poles and a distant shore line at the horizon. Unspecific and largely created from his imagination, Lee-Smith's ambiguous scenes reflect his interest in depicting the modern condition.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Peace.
        Apr. 06, 2023

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Peace.

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Peace. Pen and ink with gouache on red wove paper, circa 1970. 279x140 mm; 11x5 1/2 inches. Signed in ink, lower left. Provenance: the collection of the artist; estate of the artist; thence by descent, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999) "Actress, "1993
        Nov. 21, 2022

        Hughie Lee-Smith (1915-1999) "Actress, "1993

        Est: $2,000 - $4,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) "Actress," 1993, lithograph, signed, dated, titled and numbered, from an edition of 100. Size: 26'' x 20'', 66 x 51 cm (image); 36.5'' x 29'', 93 x 74 cm (frame).

        Material Culture
      • Hughie Lee-Smith, 1915-1999, North Bergen Memory
        Nov. 19, 2022

        Hughie Lee-Smith, 1915-1999, North Bergen Memory

        Est: $30,000 - $50,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith 1915-1999 North Bergen Memory 1982 oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches signed; titled on stretcher Stella Jones Gallery labels verso Label verso from the exhibition, Southern Journeys, held in 2004 in association with the Alexandria Museum of Art and Stella Jones Gallery, LA.

        Black Art Auction
      • Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Boy with a Flute Oil on canvas 36 x 48 in
        Nov. 04, 2022

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Boy with a Flute Oil on canvas 36 x 48 in

        Est: $70,000 - $100,000

        Hughie Lee-Smith (American, 1915-1999) Boy with a Flute Oil on canvas 36 x 48 inches (91.4 x 121.9 cm) Signed upper left: Lee-Smith PROVENANCE: The artist; Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, 1973; Beverly Brager, New York; Private collection, acquired from the above, 1989. EXHIBITED: Grand Central Art Galleries, New York, "Lee-Smith, Paintings and Drawings," January 16-27, 1973. Hughie Lee-Smith is renowned for his highly realistic and somewhat surreal paintings of figures in desolate urban landscapes that are fraught with psychological tension; The artist stated: "In the 1960s, I began to lose my youthful dream of a better world—free of racism, free of the threat of instantaneous cremation of the bomb—and feed on a slow burning disillusionment. As a consequence, my work turned inward, and I began to seek some sort of essence to it all." Lee-Smith was born in Eustis, Florida and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He received early artistic training at the Karamu House, the Cleveland School of Art (later renamed the Cleveland Institute of Art), and the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts School. From 1938 to 1939 Lee-Smith was employed by the Ohio Federal Arts Project. After serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he used funds from the G.I. Bill to earn his B.S. from Wayne State University in Detroit (1953). Inspired by the urban blight he encountered in Detroit, Lee-Smith created compelling scenes of desolation and isolation, such as Boy with a Flute. Although his enigmatic work garnered critical recognition at group exhibitions and won numerous prizes, he largely supported himself by teaching in a variety of settings. He left the Midwest in 1958 for New York, living in the East Village while teaching in the Princeton, New Jersey school system. From 1969 to 1971, he was artist-in-residence and then acting art department chair at Howard University, during a period when the Black Arts Movement was in ascendancy. Lee-Smith also spent fifteen years as an instructor at the Art Students League. In the 1960s, Lee-Smith began to exhibit regularly at the National Academy of Design, earned several awards, and was made a full academician in 1967, becoming only the second African American after Henry O. Tanner to earn this honor. Despite a lengthy list of exhibitions at commercial galleries and museums, it was not until 1988 that Lee-Smith was given a full-fledged retrospective. Lee-Smith's work is represented in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art, and Howard University, among others. HID01801242017

        Heritage Auctions
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The End (The Pink Door).
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The End (The Pink Door).

        Est: $40,000 - $60,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The End (The Pink Door). Oil on linen canvas, 1998. 1016x1270 mm; 40x50 inches. Signed in oil, lower right. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to a private collection. The End is a bold and dramatic painting from Hughie Lee-Smith's late series of works inspired by the theatre. His depictions of figures in imaginary, staged environments recall Lee-Smith's early experiences of dance and theatre while working at the Playhouse Settlement (named Karamu House in 1941) during the WPA period in Cleveland. Lee-Smith taught art at Karamu House in the late 1930s in return for the full scholarship to the Cleveland School of Art (now the Art Institute of Cleveland) that the Gilpin Players awarded him in 1935. The End is a striking painting from this ultimate period of Lee-Smith's oeuvre. With both the figures hidden or turned from the viewer, the only faces on view are the images of a Greek tragedy mask and an African mask painted on the set. The compressed space and floating elements further create a metaphysical, dream-like space that reflects the lasting influence of Giorgio De Chirico. The End is also a very personal reflection on mortality. Painted after his move to Albuquerque in 1997, Lee-Smith was fighting his final battle with cancer at the time - he passed away on February 23, 1999 at the age of 83.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Policeman Beating Man and Protestor with Sign).
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Policeman Beating Man and Protestor with Sign).

        Est: $5,000 - $7,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Policeman Beating Man and Protestor with Sign). Pencil on buff wove paper, 1938. 177x133 mm; 7x5 1/4 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower right. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to a private collection. Exhibited: Stages of Influence: The Universal Theatre of Hughie Lee-Smith, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM, February 6 - June 3, 2001. Hughie Lee-Smith drew this striking image of the police violently breaking up protests in 1938. His sketchbook included many Depression-era scenes of workers and food lines. That same year, Hughie Lee-Smith graduated with honors from the Cleveland School of Art, and worked for the Federal Arts Project of the Ohio Works Progress Administration as a printmaker from 1938-40. While working for the WPA, Lee-Smith developed his interest in social realism and documented the civic unrest he saw. Lee-Smith incorporated a similar scene in his 1939 lithograph Artist Life #2.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man Sitting.
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man Sitting.

        Est: $6,000 - $9,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Man Sitting. Graphite and pencil on buff wove paper, 1938. 305x229 mm; 12x9 inches. Signed and dated in pencil, lower center. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to a private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled.
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled.

        Est: $7,000 - $10,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled. Watercolor on thin Japan paper, 1936. 216x224 mm; 8 1/2x8 7/8 inches. Signed in pencil, lower left. Provenance: Drs. L. Morris and Adrienne L. Jones; thence by descent, private collection, New Jersey. L. Morris Jones, M.D. (1929 - 2015) and Adrienne Lash Jones, Ph.D. (1935 - 2018) married in 1957 and moved to Cleveland in 1958. Dr. Lash Jones was a tenured professor of Africana studies at Oberlin College, where she became head of the Africana department (formerly known as Black Studies) for 20 years. Lash Jones became a prominent figure in the Cleveland art scene - including being a long time board member of the Cleveland Museum of Art and Karamu House - where she championed countless efforts to support Black art and culture. Illustrated: Leslie King-Hammond, Hughie Lee-Smith (The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art, Volume VIII, plate 4, p. 4. This extremely scarce work on paper is the earliest painting we have located that displays Hughie Lee-Smith's interest in depicting isolated figures in an urban landscape. In 1936, Hughie Lee-Smith was in his second year as a student at the Cleveland School of Art where he was awarded a scholarship by the Gilpin Players at Karamu Theater and Settlement House. As part of his scholarship, he also taught art at Karamu House in Cleveland until 1939, alongside other artists Charles Sallée, Elmer Brown, and William E. Smith. Lee-Smith graduated with honors in 1938, and then won a scholarship to continue studying for a fifth year. Lee-Smith's noteworthy rise was recognized by his inclusion in Alain Locke's The Negro in Art, published in 1940.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Woman's Profile with Mask in Abstract Ground.
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Woman's Profile with Mask in Abstract Ground.

        Est: $7,000 - $10,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Woman's Profile with Mask in Abstract Ground. Watercolor and pencil on wove paper, 1993-94. 206x356 mm; 10 1/4x14 1/8 inches. Signed in ink, lower right. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Woman In Green Blouse with Two Abstract Masks.
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Woman In Green Blouse with Two Abstract Masks.

        Est: $7,000 - $10,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Woman In Green Blouse with Two Abstract Masks. Watercolor and pencil on wove paper, 1993-94. 254x317 mm; 10x12 1/2 inches. Signed in ink, lower right. Provenance: the estate of the artist; thence by descent to the current owner, private collection.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Promise.
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Promise.

        Est: $4,000 - $6,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) The Promise. Color lithograph on cream wove paper, 1989. 590x432 mm; 23 1/4x17 inches, full margins. A hors commerce print, aside from the edition of 100. Signed and inscribed "HC 17/25" in pencil, lower margin. Printed by J. K. Fine Art Editions, New York, with the blind stamp, lower left.

        Swann Auction Galleries
      • HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Woman with Pearl Choker).
        Oct. 06, 2022

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Woman with Pearl Choker).

        Est: $20,000 - $30,000

        HUGHIE LEE-SMITH (1915 - 1999) Untitled (Woman with Pearl Choker). Oil on masonite board, 1954. 300x222 mm; 11 3/4x7 3/4 inches. Signed and dated in oil, upper right. Provenance: Anna L. Werbe Gallery, Detroit; private collection, Michigan. Hughie Lee-Smith had a solo exhibition at the Anna L. Werbe Gallery in 1954, and exhibited there through the 1950s. This elegant and enigmatic portrait shows the growing influence of surrealism on the mid-1950s paintings of Hughie Lee-Smith.

        Swann Auction Galleries
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