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Essays

The Modern Era: Post World War II DecadesLee-Smith, Hughie

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Confrontation

Artwork Facts

Hughie Lee-Smith

1915-1999
Confrontation
circa 1970
oil on canvas
33 x 36 inches
signed lower right
On loan from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of Henry Ward Ranger through the National Academy of Design
3.2009
East Wing: The Depression and Beyond (Gallery 17)
On Loan: Not part of the Hunter Museum permanent collection.

Analysis

Hughie Lee-Smith's evocative painting Confrontation can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Some visitors see an image of girls confronting their own inner trials as they stand amidst a ruined landscape and a wall indicating the brokenness of the situation. The artist sometimes saw his images as the alienation that he as a black man felt in twentieth century America.