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Vincent Dacosta Smith

First Day of School

Maker

Vincent Dacosta Smith (American, 1929-2003)
Kelly Driscoll, printer
G. W. Einstein Company, Inc., publisher

Title

First Day of School

Year

1965

Medium

  • Etching on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Etching on paper

Materials

etching

Supports

  • Medium weight white Rives BFK wove paper

Dimensions

Plate: 22.7 x 25.1 cm (8 15/16 x 9 7/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Original--Recto:in pencil under platemark on left:AP; titled in center:First Day of School; signed and dated on right:Vincent 65 Verso:in pencil in LL:TR 17128/34

Marks: Watermark:BFK RIVES/FRANCE

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Walter H. Kimball Fund

Object Number

1991.034

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

Urban America, 1930-1970
Dec 01, 2006 – Feb 25, 2007

Label copy

Smith wasa member of the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s. The group espoused the importance of politically concerned art focused on the experience of African Americans. This print, from a series that examined the South during the mid-1960s, portrays African­American children on their way to school as they are taunted by a threatening crowd of whites across the street. It describes the continued resistance to desegregation even a decade after the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling by the Supreme Court.

One Voice, Many Visions
Work By African American Artists
Feb 20, 1998 – Jun 14, 1998

Label copy

I'm very much a student of history... I see the same things; what impels me to paint is still there, the issues are still the same.

The work of Vincent Smith is rooted in American history and African American life and culture. Smith, a painter, has made prints since the late 1960s. In First Day of School the viewer witnesses an historical event from the era of the Civil Rights Movement. Smith depicts children both as victims and survivors of the integration of public schools. They are overshadowed by symbols of social injustice: white men drinking corn whiskey, some armed with clubs and guns, one wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood, another carrying a sign that reads "Never." The etching resembles documentary photographs from the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper with national coverage.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Vincent Dacosta Smith (American, 1929-2003)
Kelly Driscoll, printer
G. W. Einstein Company, Inc., publisher
First Day of School, 1965
Etching on paper
Plate: 22.7 x 25.1 cm (8 15/16 x 9 7/8 inches)
Walter H. Kimball Fund 1991.034

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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