Lot 74
William E. Smith
(African American; 1913 - 1997)
Day is Done
Linocut
Signed and titled lower margin. Original "Lyman Bros." label to verso.
Born in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1913, William E. Smith moved to Cleveland at the age of 12, after his mother's death. At 13, he met Rowena and Russell Jeliffe, founders of Karamu House. Karamu House, originally known as the 'Playhouse Settlement', was founded as a multicultural, interracial settlement house where the arts were celebrated. Dancers, printmakers, actors, and writers all found a place here. Smith studied with artists Marion Bonsteel and Richard Beatty. He was introduced to print making and how to use brown battleship linoleum for his linocuts. Along with other Karamu House artists, like Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles Sallee, he showed his works at the Cleveland Artists Exhibitions at the Cleveland Museum of Art in the 1930's and 40's. One of these exhibitons of Karamu artists was shown at the Associated American Artists, New York City.
Smith also attended the John Huntington Polytechnic Art Institute in Cleveland from 1935 to 1940 on a five year Gilpin Scholarship . After serving in World War II with the Army, he returned to study at the Cleveland School of Art with Paul Travis and at Hal Cooper's School of Advertising. When Smith moved to Los Angeles in 1950 he made a living by working in the sign division of Lockheed Aircraft and teaching classes in his studio. He co-founded and exhibited with the Eleven Associated Artists' Gallery in the 1950's.
Smith's linocuts were included in an exhibition called, Impressions/Expressions: Black American Graphics at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 1979-80, and the Gallery of Art, Howard University, Washington, DC, 1980. They were also featured in, Alone in a Crowd, Prints of the 1930s and 40s by African-American Artists from the Collection of Reba and Dave Williams. This show traveled to the Equitable Gallery, New York; the Newark Museum of Art, New Jersey, 1992; Long Beach Museum of Art, California, 1993; New York State Museum; Yale University Art Gallery, Hartford, Connecticut, 1994; and the Brooklyn Museum, New York, 1996. This collection is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Smith's work was also featured in The Russell and Rowena Jelliffe Collection: Prints & Drawings from the Karamu Workshop, 1929-1941, South Wing Gallery, St. Paul"s Episcopal Church, Cleveland Heights, 1991. He was featured in the exhibition, Yet We Still Rise, African American Art in Cleveland, 1920-1970 which traveled to Cleveland State University, 1996; Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown; and the Riffe Gallery, Columbus, 1997. His watercolor, '38th and Central' was featured on the cover of the exhibition catalogue.
The largest archive of work by William E. Smith is found at the Cleveland State University Art Gallery where it is part of the Jelliffe Collection. Work by Smith can also be found in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Syracuse University Art Gallery, NY; Cleveland Museum of Art; Oberlin College Art Museum; Howard University; Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
8.75" x 8"
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