73

Frank E. Smith

(1935-)

Self Portrait on the Subway.

Oil on canvas, 1969.
Signed and dated "69" in oil, lower left.
30 x 50 in. (76.2 x 127 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    Private collection, Philadelphia.

    This large, expressive oil painting is a scarce example of a Frank E. Smith painting from his early Chicago period, made before his joining the art collective AfriCOBRA. A Chicago native, Frank Smith received a BFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1958 and began his teaching career in Chicago Public Schools in 1959. In 1970, Smith became a member of AfriCOBRA and began a career teaching at Howard University in Washington, DC. He went on to receive an MFA from Howard University in 1972.

    Since the late 1970s, Smith has been as an abstract artist of colorful geometric forms and African-inspired symbols and imagery, working across many media including ceramics, painting, printmaking and sculpture. He has had more than seventy exhibitions in museums and galleries across the US, Africa, and the Caribbean. He has participated in the US Art in Embassies (AIE) program, and works can be found in many institutional collections including the Brooklyn Museum, the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  • Condition:
    Please contact the Specialist for the auction to request a condition report.

    Condition reports and additional images are provided as a courtesy and should be used by you to aid in the formation of your own opinion regarding condition. All material is sold subject to Swann's standard Terms and Conditions of Sale as published in our catalogues and posted on our website, and include the following terms: (1) all property is sold "as-is"; and (2) works cannot be returned on the basis of condition.

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October 7, 2025 12:00 PM EDT
New York, NY, US

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