Figurative artists Eldzier Cortor, Hughie Lee-Smith and Charles White stayed true to their roots in social realism as their work evolved in the post-war decades. Unlike contemporaries Charles Alston, Norman Lewis and Hale Woodruff, these three resisted the trend towards abstraction, or “going modern” as Woodruff called it. Their shared experiences in the Chicago Renaissance of the early 1940s, the WPA and the rapid growth of urban culture helped shape their artistic identities.
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| Charles White's Songs of Lifeis an exquisite example of his large pen and ink drawings from the 1950s |
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| Hughie Lee-Smith's Boy with Flute is a significant painting in the artist's oeuvre, a mid-career reinterpretation of one of his best known subjects--the solitary flute player against a desolate landscape |
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| Eldzier Cortor's Classical Composition No. 4 is one of the largest known examples of his long study of the beauty of the African-American woman |
All three artists demonstrate consistency in their approach and a trust in the figure as a vehicle of expression, both formally and intellectually. Their unique voices are now regarded as important contributions to 20th Century American Art. Yet these artists don’t fall neatly into the categories of American, modern and contemporary art--a testament to the richness and longevity of their art, and an unwillingness to be defined by convention.