Arvie Smith at Monique Meloche

 

 

Echo and Narcissus, 2022

 

 

 As Arvie Smith says in an interview “ Even though I’m a professional, when I’m out on the street I’m seen just like a pimp- I’m treated just like any other black figure which in some instances have just about as much rights as a horse, a dog, or a chair.” 

Apparently he has been sufficiently outraged by race-based humiliation that he devoted the past two decades of his life to expressing that through art. ( and maybe even earlier - the pieces in this show date only from 2006 to 2022. The artist was born in 1938)

Smith also suggests that he would like his work to initiate a dialogue - but what can be discussed with a man who is yelling? It would be futile to mention the cost and the consequences of the Civil War or Civil Rights legislation - or even the successes of his own career. He wants viewers to feel his pain - though curiously his cartoonish mages are as breezy and ebullient as Disney cartoons. His work feels screwball joyful until you recognize the symbols and the narrative of hate and degradation. He appears to be enjoying himself even as he expresses the misery of racism.

The image of young boys looking at their reflections in “Echo and Narcissus” (2022) is the most poignant. They’ve been taught to see themselves as empty-headed goofs or monsters. Does the artist still feel that way about himself ? Some viewers may feel empathy for the damage done to innocent children - others may regret that the artist had not yet taken responsibility for a self image that only he can repair. Both are correct - and so this body of work contributes to the polarization that defines this moment in American life - providing career opportunities for extremists of every persuasion.

Will this work hold interest when that moment has passed ? These are more like agitprop storyboards than the painterly work of Robert Colescott who introduced Smith to the genre. The figure drawing is suitable for political cartoons, but does not rise to the level of the snappy characterizations of that 18th Century icon of sarcasm, Thomas Rowlandson. And there is nothing like the formal power of a recent master like Charles White.

But the manic, bubbly, high pitched energy of his surfaces do echo those of his mentor, the ABX painter Grace Hartigan. Plus, the artist seems desperate to cram as many tropes into each work as possible. More is more. Subtlety - tossed out the window - lies spreadeagled on the pavement below. If he lived in Chicago, Smith might be called an Imagist. Recently he has begun to explore Classical mythology. It’s quite a stretch to conflate Leda and the Swan or the triumph of Bacchus with racism in America. It gives some hope that he may ultimately present a life not tethered to victimhood. And maybe he already has - - - if you just ignore the subject matter.