In-stock and ready to ship print of The Piper, 1953, by Hughie Lee-Smith. The original oil on composition board is in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Lee-Smith, an African-American painter who grew up in Cleveland, lived and worked in Detroit between the years 1945 and 1958. The Piper explores the loneliness of the urban individual and the psychological alienation of the young. Personal symbolism guides the formal construction of this work: the wall, an indicator of the difficulty of escape; the young boy, a metaphor for mankind; and music, a symbol of the longing to break free. The crumbling wall is in the shadow of a modernist building, suggesting the plight of the urban poor left behind by the growing city.
The beauty of Lee-Smith's work lies in its ability to evoke different emotions and thoughts in each observer, allowing for a personal connection and interpretation of the painting.
Printed with archival-quality pigment inks on high-resolution, large-format twelve-color printers, the substrate is an acid-free and lignin-free 230gsm coated fine art paper. The bright white base color and smooth matte finish allows for the highest quality reproduction possible.
The image size is 6 3/8 x 10 3/8 in. on an 11 x 14 white ground, allowing it to fit into our standard 11 x 14 in. frame.
