Vincent Smith
Below the Sahara
Intaglio
22 x 30 inches
Edition: AP
Published by Brandywine Workshop and Archives, Philadelphia.
In a career that spanned half a century, painter Vincent Smith documented in brilliant color some of the most compelling events in 20th-century America. From the bebop-fueled improvisation of 1940s Harlem jazz clubs to the visceral tug of Civil Rights workers confronting deep-seated hate with soul-clearing hope, to the creative militancy of the Black Arts Movement, Smith was there, brush in hand, bearing witness. "A figurative painter with an often subtle, social thrust, he placed his subjects in a stylized way against geometric, textured and intricately colored backgrounds," noted the New York Times. "I always knew that I was either going to do something or do nothing," he told American Visions. "And when I thought of myself as a painter, I dreamed of myself as a great painter." He succeeded.
—Excerpted from https://biography.jrank.org/pages/2432/Smith-Vincent-D.html, accessed on 7-27-2021
