He also conducted research at the Bibliotheque National for Schomburg, obtaining information for him on African-American artists who lived and worked in Europe.ĭuring most of 19 Smith lived in Belgium, where he played the banjo in a band and studied art. While in Paris Smith executed a series of portrait etchings of great black leaders, probably at the request of his patron, Walter Schomburg, a New York based collector and dealer. The painted version of this print appeared on the cover of ‘Crisis’ magazine in May 1922. This is evident in his print ‘Rene Maran’, a half-length portrait of the noted black French author dressed in a suit and wearing wire-rimmed glasses. About this time, his art took on a new direction, and began to celebrate black achievements and racial uplift. He spent the first half of 1922 in Italy, performing music and studying art, and continuing to produce tourist scenes. Some of these etchings were exhibited in the New York Public Library in 1921 an 1922, and in the Tanner Art League Exhibition, Washington, D.C., in 1922, where he won a gold medal. He worked as a musician with various bands, and the art he produced was mostly tourist scenes of streets, bridges, ports and marketplaces in France and Luxembourg. His own experiences with discrimination while back in New York may have been one of the reasons why, on June 12, 1920, Smith set sail for Europe, never to live in the United States again.įrom 1920 to 1926 Smith travelled throughout Europe, while maintaining an apartment in Paris. Smith was aware that participants in the Great Migration of southern blacks to the North would find that discrimination was rampant in the North as well. A banner streaming from the lapel of the man in coat and tie indicates his destination: TO THE NORTH. In it, a black man in coat and tie hurries away from another black man who is hanging from a tree – a lynching victim. Another work, ‘The Reason’, a pen and ink on paper, was published in Crisis in March, 1920, and depicts a horrifying image of the American South. It was published in August, 1920, in the NAACP’S magazine, ‘Crisis’, a magazine for which he would become a regular contributor. ![]() His etching, ‘Plantation Melodies’, striking in its portrayal of southern black musicians as ordinary people performing for their own pleasure rather than as outlandish caricatures performing for whites, immediately won Smith acclaim. In 1920 his work shifted from the world of allegory to the world of African-Americans in the South. In 1919 he received an honorable discharge from the army and returned to the National Academy of Design, where he won prizes in painting and etching. Many believe that this work represents his belief in the determination of black people to overcome racism not only in the United States, but throughout the world. Only one work from this period has survived, a pen and ink drawing titled ‘The Fall of the Castle’, in which a crowd of black men ascend a steep hill on top of which is perched a castle bearing the label ‘PREJUDICE’. While there he visited cathedrals in France and Belgium, and worked as a cartoonist. He was one of 30,000 black combat troops who saw action in France. When the United States entered World War 1 in 1917, Smith enlisted in the 807 Pioneer Band and served overseas for two and half months. ![]() Unfortunately, none of his works from this period seem to have survived. There he won several awards and medals for his efforts in a poster competition and for his charcoal work. ![]() In 1915, he became the first African-American student at the prestigious National Academy of Design. Smith began his formal training in art in 1913, when he became the first African-American to earn a scholarship to attend the High School for Ethical Culture, where he studied drawing, watercolor painting, poster design, sculpture and basket making. Eventually he became a proficient banjo-player and guitarist, which he would later put to use as a jazz musician and singer while a member of various bands and orchestras in Europe. His works are significant for their social commentary on racism, their themes of global racial uplift, and their exploration of human types and stereotypes.įrom an early age, his parents encouraged his artistic talents, paying for music lessons. He is further distinguished as the only African-American artist who was a printmaker during this time and the only one who made his living as a musician. He was the most prolific of all the African-American artists who expatriated to France between the two World Wars of the 20th Century, producing at least 220 prints, drawings, and paintings. The picture above is attributed to Albert Alexander Smith, who was born in New York City on Septemby parents who immigrated from Bermuda.
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