Hughie Lee Smith

The Walls

The iconography of Lee-Smith’s The Walls evokes the intense feelings of alienation and anxiety that oppressed Americans during the 1950s. The barren landscape, crumbling walls, and tangles of wire symbolize both the desolation of World War II and the threat of atomic destruction at the advent of the Cold War.

These elements also represent the reality of decaying buildings in Detroit, where the artist lived. The distance and physical barriers that separate the figures are symbolic of social tensions. White male figures assume heroic poses atop the highest wall, signaling their dominance in a racially divided system. The central figure begins climbing walls that symbolize racism, while the isolation of the figure at far right reflects Lee-Smith’s own feelings of alienation as a Black man and as an artist. Colorful balloons drift skyward, revealing a sense of childlike innocence and symbolizing a vivid, albeit fragile, promise of hope.