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Sketchbooks of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture at Madison, Maine, and African Americans
Title
[Sketchbooks of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture at Madison, Maine, and African Americans].
Production
[Maine], [approximately 1953-1956]
Physical Description
approximately 144 sketches in 2 sketchbooks : pencil, pen and ink and pencil ; volumes 22 x 14 cm
Notes
Title supplied by cataloger.
Place of creation supplied by cataloger.
Date of creation supplied by cataloger.
In English.
Provenance
Purchased from Between the Covers on the Alfred Z. Baker, Jr. Fund, 2021.
Access and use
This material is open for research.
Biographical / Historical Note
Vincent Smith (1929-2003) was an African American artist, painter, and printmaker that emphasized figurative abstractions and materiality in his work, as well as a teacher. The son of immigrants from Barbados, Smith was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City. After service in the United States Army, he worked briefly for the United States Postal Service and then attended classes at the Brooklyn Museum Art School and the Art Students League of New York, he then earned a scholarship to the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where he studied from 1953 to 1956. Smith also taught at the Whitney Museum’s Art Resource Center and at the Center for Art and Culture of Bedford Stuyvesant. Smith died in Manhattan, New York City, from complications related to lymphoma.
Summary
Two sketchbooks with sketches and manuscript notes that document his student residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture at Madison, Maine, 1953-1956, as well as contemporaneous sketches of African Americas. Each sketchbook consists of 184 unlined pages a black leatherette binding.
A sketchbook that documents his student residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 1953-1956, consists of approximately 100 pencil, pen and ink sketches with accompanying manuscript notes on 160 pages, with one leaf not extant, and interspersed with names and addresses of fellow students and teachers. Sketches include views of the campus buildings and surrounding forest as well as portraits of students in dormitory rooms and studios, and of several female models, both nude and clothed.
A sketchbook probably created contemporaneously to his residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, approximately 1953-1959, and likely executed in Brooklyn, New York City, consists of 31 pages with eight pen and ink sketches (some with highlights) and 13 pencil sketches that emphasize geometric patterns, African American figures, and cityscapes. The manuscript portion of the volume presents a semi-unified work that combines philosophical and social commentary with a fairy tale involving: “the hour of the cocktail,” Harry S. Truman, and his daughter, Margaret Truman, as well as notions of chivalry.
Format
Images
Language
English
Added to Catalog
June 29, 2022
References
Vincent Smith, Sketchbooks of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture at Madison, Maine, and African Americans. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Cite as
Vincent Smith, Sketchbooks of the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture at Madison, Maine, and African Americans. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
Subjects
Genre/Form
Sketchbooks.
Sketches.
Occupation
African American artists United States 20th century.
Bookmark As
Citation
