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Vincent Smith had a restless youth, in which he dropped out of high school, road the trains as a hobo, briefly enlisted in the army and worked in a post office in his hometown of Brooklyn, NY. A single visit to a museum changed his life forever when he saw a Paul Cezanne exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. "Something told me when I walked into the museum that this was where I belonged… For a year afterward I haunted the libraries reading everything I could get my hands on about art, literature, philosophy, religion, existentialism—you name it.” In the 1950s Smith began to take classes at the Arts Students League in New York (his studies later included Empire State College, Saratoga, NY, 1953-56; Brooklyn Museum Art School, Brooklyn, NY, 1954-56; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME, 1955 and State University of New York, Saratoga).

During the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, Smith became a prominent member of the Black Arts Movement. His work often referenced racial struggles, jazz music (which he loved so dearly) and his visits to Africa. The print in the VMAD collection clearly reflects Smith’s connection to Africa by including several masks, notably from the Senufo.