Untitled (Abstraction) 1939

This abstract print was made by Charles William Smith at an unknown date. Smith lived through a period of huge social change in the United States. We can see here a tension between representation and abstraction. The shapes resist any clear symbolic meaning, yet they trigger an impulse to find representational forms, like a balloon floating over a dark pyramid. The artist was part of the African American art movement. During this time, black artists sought to create artworks that reflected their cultural identity, but they had to negotiate what that identity was. Art historians might look at the journals, letters, and publications that circulated at the time this work was made to get a better sense of the social and institutional context around it. That analysis may provide the key to unlocking what Smith was trying to say.