I was recently introduced to the art of Hueghie Lee-Smith, an African-American painter who was deeply influenced by the issues of his time. Raised by his grandmother during the great depression, Lee-Smith matured early in life and was highly encouraged by his mother to become a fine artist; she was a professional musician herself. In addition to being a successful painter, Lee-Smith was also a print maker and art teacher; his canvases show a great sensibility to compositional balance and color harmony. What follows is a direct quote I read fromHughie Lee Smith (The David C. Driskell Series of African American Art) by Leslie King-Hammond0, In those few sentences, the artist explains in some detail the reason behind his aesthetic direction:

The choice of figurative representation had special meaning to African Americans because grotesquely negative images throughout the media and popular culture demonized, dehumanized and lampooned the African American.