Dr. Charles Smith

Dr. Charles Smith,

at his Hammond environment, 2024

– photograph by Susan Moran

Born in New Orleans, 1940

Dr. Charles Smith is an artist, a historian of African-American events as well as an activist for social change in America. During his childhood, he experienced two incidents of race-based violence that planted the seeds for what his art stands for today. When Dr. Smith was fourteen, his father was killed in an accident, that was likely a racially motivated murder. Not long after this, his mother moved the family to Chicago. Dr. Smith attended the funeral of Emmett Till a year later and this congealed his desire to speak out about racial prejudice.

In 1966, Dr. Smith was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War as a Marine, where he experienced heavy combat. This left many physical, psychological, and spiritual wounds for him that aggravated his sense of the many injustices in the world. After purchasing a house in Aurora, Illinois in 1986 he spent the next fourteen years creating a sculptural environment in his home and yard to commemorate the events and people of African American history, from the slavery era to current times. He named it the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veteran’s Archive (AAHM&BVA). In 2000 Kohler Foundation, Inc., acquired approximately five hundred sculptures from his Aurora environment. These were preserved and placed in nineteen museums and institutions. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin has the largest collection with more than 200 works.

After visiting Hammond, Louisiana, he felt a strong need to move there and to continue his project there. In 2001 he moved to Hammond and created his second AAHM&BVA. Unfortunately, his Hammond environment was heavily damaged by several hurricanes. Recently a number of works were acquired by Kohler Foundation, Inc. and will be restored and installed in the large installation of Dr. Smith’s work at Kohler Arts Center’s Art Preserve.

Dr. Smith is an avid researcher and historian, adding “Dr.” to his name to convey his life experiences, scholarship and achievements. Dr. Smith is compelled to create powerful narratives through his figural sculpture. He feels deeply about what issues need to be addressed and makes his voice heard through each work of art he creates. His concrete and mixed media works commemorate achievements by those who are not well known as well as those who are famous. He often depicts events from the Civil Rights Movement along with untold stories of his people since slavery as well as everyday scenes.

He works using his own secret formula for concrete, mixed media, and paint, with many found objects, hats, broken objects and fabric. These have transformed his yards and homes during his more than forty years of his passionate hard work of expressing what he needs to say. His works are in museums and important collections worldwide.

–Marcia Weber