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VINCENT SMITH AT ALEXANDRE GALLERY w/1 cut

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NEW YORK CITY — The Alexandre Gallery is exhibiting Vincent Smith’s early paintings and works on paper from the 1950s and 60s, through January 29. Included are examples from the seldom seen “Saturday Night in Harlem”  series created during the mid-1950s.

During this period Vincent Smith was an artist who pursued social inquiry that articulated African American identity. Along with contemporaries such as his close friend Jacob Lawrence, Smith used the communicative medium of painting in a direct, raw, colorful and narrative style to represent contemporary social issues, such as police brutality and political struggles. A parallel path in Smith’s work investigates a more quotidian experience such as everyday New York street life, which served as a fertile source of inspiration. Typically the rich details of placards on stores and buildings, the assembled people and their humanity mirror the ethos of the time.

In drawings like “Fred Washington Slain” Smith portrayed the assassinated Black Panther Party leader. The body of Washington lies at the bottom of the composition amid bullet holes and sanguine splashes, with the specifics of the scene roughly drawn in — the spontaneity of the drawing creating an emotional charge.

Alexandre Gallery is at the Fuller Building, 41 East 57th Street. For information, www.AlexandreGallery.com or 212-755-2828.