Artwork Page for Rooftop

Details / Information for Rooftop

Rooftop

1957

Hughie Lee-Smith

(American, 1915–1999)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on masonite
Measurements
Unframed: 61 x 63.5 cm (24 x 25 in.)
Credit Line
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 2009.7
Copyright
© Estate of Hughie Lee-Smith / Licensed by VAGA at ARS, NY
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
228B Cleveland Artists
Print
?

Did You Know?

Hughie Lee-Smith ran track with fellow student Jesse Owens at East Technical High School in Cleveland.

Description

Trained in Cleveland before launching his mature career in Detroit and New York, Lee-Smith frequently painted isolated—and often solitary—figures amid desolate cityscapes and landscapes. They have pronounced overtones of introspection, which the artist attributed, in part, to his experiences navigating the forces and effects of racism: "In my case, aloneness, I think, has stemmed from the fact that I’m Black. Unconsciously it has a lot to do with alienation."
A vertically oriented oil painting with defined but visible brushstrokes depicts a person standing on the rooftop of a red brick, squared building in the lower third and in front of a gray-blue sky in the upper two-thirds. The figure has a medium-dark skin tone and faces the right, wearing a white shirt and dark trousers. Two, well-defined, fluffy white clouds float in the sky, one painted just above the person's head. More building tops are in the background.

Rooftop

1957

Hughie Lee-Smith

(American, 1915–1999)
America

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