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China or the Devil
Lee N. Smith
Lee N. Smith, III, American, born 1950
1987, Oil on canvas, 60 1/4 x 70 1/4 inches
Collection of Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum Purchase,
The Benjamin J. Tillar Memorial Trust
About the Artist
Lee Smith was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1950, and
lived there until he was six. When his family moved to Dallas,
Texas, they lived in a suburb east of the city that was near
open farmland. His mother encouraged him to use the public
library, and it was in history books with paintings of battle
scenes that he first learned about art. Smith had no formal
training, but he began to paint in 1974 and had his first
one man exhibit at the University of Texas at Arlington in
1979. He had a show at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
in 1981 and at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston in
1986.
In 1984, Lee Smith was one of 26 artists to represent the
United States at the prestigious Venice Biennale in Italy.
During the late 1980s, he spent two years in Paris and returns
periodically to work in France.
One writer wrote, Lee N. Smith still thinks like a kid. His
paintings are about things that were important to him as a
boy, and they remind us of our own similar childhood experiences.
About the Art
From his memories of boyhood, Lee Smith paints works that
remind us of our own childhood experiences. In China or the
Devil, the viewer sees a group of boys digging a hole. Light
is glowing upward from the hole illuminating their green faces.
The strange, otherworldly colors and the strong contrast of
light and shadow give the scene a feeling of the tension and
excitement of the moment. The mysterious quality of the painting
can remind the viewer of the feelings of excitement during
our own childhood adventures.
Additional Information
Lee Smith's boyhood was typical in most ways. He was a Boy
Scout and participated in camping trips and other traditional
Boy Scout activities. He was also a member of The Warriors,
a secret club of neighborhood boys who performed initiations
and other rituals in the hayfields near his home. Many of
the experiences we see depicted in his paintings are references
to the activities and the adventures he experienced with these
two groups. He says, Most of my paintings are based on actual
experiences. His work shows the viewer not only the usual
boyhood experiences, but also the world of mystery and imagination
that lies just below the surface of everyday happenings during
that time in our lives when we are between childhood and adulthood.
Smith feels that the unusual, almost science-fiction colors
of his paintings are the result of his playing in a rock-jazz
band and his work in a commercial print shop. When he began
to paint, the late night hours of the band became a problem.
He enjoyed painting so much that he gave up music for painting.
The Dallas Museum of Art also has a painting by Lee Smith.
Its title is Fire and Ice, and it shows an initiation ritual
being performed for entrance into the boys club. While one
initiate waits, the first watches a wire glowing in the campfire,
supposedly in preparation for branding. However, beside the
fire is a container of water into which the hot wire actually
will be plunged. The first boy is expected to scream at the
appropriate moment when the hot wire and cool water meet with
a hissing sound, scaring the second initiate who sits blindfolded
and at a distance from the action.
About the Time and Place
In 50 Texas Artists, Lee Smith speaks about his work, saying:
"My pictures deal with a certain time and place.
It was a time when all was ruled by parents, church, and
school. The place was the very edge of known suburbia. Through
the front door there was row after row of almost identical
houses--measured spaces which comprised the world of expected
behavior. Through the back gate, escape was easy as we stepped
across the Dallas city limits into the unexplored regions
of endless hay fields. The simplicity of the landscape allowed
us to see with our imaginations. Engulfed in the vastness
of the fields, every stone, stick, branch, and piece of
cardboard we found was prized. Metal pieces of junk became
treasures. To claim the land we dug burrows into the earth
and connected them to each other with tunnels. The scraps
of wood and branches were used to support the roofs of hay
and dirt. Like the prairie dogs we had seen, we were able
to vanish through hidden entrances into another world. With
found rope, wire, and trees--cut down and hauled back from
the creek--we erected towers to rise above the ground. From
places like these emerged the rituals by which our adventures
were ruled."
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