The landscapes that Lee-Smith created between 1939 and 1943 give the initial impressions of mountainous vistas and abandoned residential or industrial tracts, but upon closer scrutiny, their fantastical properties take precedence over any perceived realities. For example, his lithograph Desolation… consciously manipulates the land’s geological features to create a rolling and restless terrain. Hovering scavenger birds and the vestiges of civilization that appear within these animated settings—among the remnants are dead trees, building rubble, fractured pipelines, and structures in various stages of ruin—all conspire with the topography to evoke a wasteland, or rather a symbolic, eviscerated life force.
“Hughie Lee-Smith: Breaking the Fourth Wall,” in Karamu Artists Inc.: Printmaking, Race, and Community (Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2025), 56-72.
