The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of May 30, 2026

A horizontally oriented monoprint in dark brown ink on cream paper depicts three women. To our left, a figure stands with arms crossed, facing right. In the center, a second woman faces forward, while a third on our right is shown in profile. Grainy, mottled textures and two rectangular forms fill the background. Handwritten text and a signature, "Hughie Lee-Smith 1966," appear along the bottom margin.

Untitled (Three Women)

1966

Hughie Lee-Smith

(American, 1915–1999)
America
monoprint
Sheet: 24.1 x 33.2 cm (9 1/2 x 13 1/16 in.)
Gift of Ron Rumford in honor of Daniel Postotnik 2025.164
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Hughie Lee-Smith attended the Cleveland School of Art (now the Cleveland Institute of Art) in 1935 and was one of its first Black graduates.

Description

Hughie Lee-Smith was a Cleveland-based artist associated with the printmaking workshop at Karamu House, a community art center founded as a settlement house in 1915. He was one of the founders of Karamu Artists Inc., a Black printmaking collective focused on achieving professionalization and using art to serve the community. Lee-Smith left Cleveland in the 1940s, and turned to painting as his primary medium, creating figural works infused with a sense of surrealism and alienation. This rare, late monoprint reflects his painting practice as well as the artist’s continued interest in the print medium.
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled (Three Women)|url=false|author=Hughie Lee-Smith|year=1966|access-date=30 May 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.164