Putting ordinary people in odd, unsettling surroundings was the specialty of Hughie Lee-Smith. In today’s episode we look at his “Confrontation” from the Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

We’’ll find out how an encounter with Italian Surrealism and a forbidden childhood carnival forged a visual language he used to depict universal feelings of loneliness, separation, and alienation in post-war America.

SHOW NOTES

“A Long Look” themes are "Easy" by Ron Gelinas https://youtu.be/2QGe6skVzSs and “At the Cafe with You” by Onion All Stars https://pixabay.com/users/onion_all_stars-33331904/

Episode music:
“Passing Fields” by Quantum Jazz
Courtesy of Free music Archive (CC BY-SA) https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Quantum_Jazz/End_of_Line/05_-_Quantum_Jazz_-_Passing_Fields/

“Ghost Carousel” by LAURENT BUCZEK
Courtesy of Pixabay https://pixabay.com/music/build-up-scenes-ghost-carousel-155303/

“Between Worlds” by Tobias Webster (CC-BY)
http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/tobias_weber/56664

"Shades of Spring" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
https://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/music.html
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Artwork information 
https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/confrontation-78130

Artist information
Biography
Hughie Lee-Smith by Leslie King-Hammond and Aiden Faust. San Francisco: Pomegranate, 2010.

Hughie Lee-Smith papers, c 1890-2007, bulk 1931-1999. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

https://americanart.si.edu/artist/hughie-lee-smith-6317

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hughie_Lee-Smith

https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/04/nyregion/art-a-painter-finally-gets-his-due.html

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/11/12/nyregion/art-review-a-painter-s-evolution-visual-and-political.html

Transcript available at https://alonglookpodcast.com/confrontation