dr Charles Smith sits with some of his artwork at the Kohler Art Preserve in Sheboygan.
as dr Charles Smith sold hundreds of his works to the Kohler Foundation, the outspoken artist made one thing clear:
“You buy art, not me,” he said. “That way you can’t tell me to stop saying what I’m saying.”
Far from stopping Smith, Sheboygan-based John Michael Kohler Arts Center may offer the 81-year-old artist a broader forum to preach his message. Smith is one of the few living artists represented at Kohler’s Art Preserve, which opened in 2021, a combination museum, study center, and working conservation space. The Kohler Foundation donated more than 200 of Smith’s sculptures to the JMKAC, giving it the largest institutional collection of his art.
The Art Preserve houses large collections of artist-built environments, such as those by Mary Nohl, the late creator of Fox Point, and Nek Chand, who made hundreds of human figures out of rock and stone in India.
MORE: From Mary Nohl’s tools to chicken bone thrones, Kohler’s new Art Preserve houses works from “artist-built environments.”
Kohler formed a relationship with Smith, who now resides in Hammond, Louisiana but designed many of the works in the Art Preserve at his former home in Aurora, Illinois. In October, he visited the Art Preserve to help curators organize his work there and to meet and speak with groups and visitors, including members of the African American Art Alliance, a support group at the Milwaukee Art Museum.
Like many of the artists featured in the Art Preserve, Smith’s work gains power when seen en masse. During his recent visit, Smith worked with curators on a plan that will eventually result in the installation of his concrete and mixed media figures across the historical arc of the black experience, from Africa through the Middle Passage, slavery, plantation life to the early 20th century, the civil rights movement to the present day.
“Art is meant to leave a message of education, to inspire,” Smith said, echoing what he said to members of the visiting arts alliance.
The story goes on
“I had no artistic skills … but when God comes into your life and calls you, there will be something.”
Called to make art about black history
Smith was born in New Orleans and raised in Chicago after his father’s death in what Smith believes was a racially motivated murder. His mother took him to see the body of the murdered Emmett Till in 1955.
During the Vietnam War, he served as a Navy infantryman, an experience that left him injured, depressed, and suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. He said he started making art in 1986 after God told him to do it to counteract his anger and depression. He also called himself “Dr.” to honor the wisdom he has acquired through life experience.
dr Charles Smith is working on a sculpture at his home in Hammond. la
“My job as a minister, as an artist, as a person who ministers in the church, is to tell them the truth. That’s all God asks of me,” said Smith, seated in the center of a semicircle of his sculptures.
His constant preoccupation is with the importance of knowing black history. A male figure with his arm raised represents the Amistad, the Spanish schooner on which slaves rebelled in 1839, leading to a US Supreme Court decision affirming the freedom of the former slaves.
Smith points to figures of house slaves and field slaves, noting that the latter can be easily identified by scars on their backs.
A group of reclining figures represent graves in a Canadian cemetery. “That’s why they’re on the ground and looking up to let people passing by know they didn’t get a chance to do what you’re doing,” said Smith.
Another group honors black intellectual leaders, including Ida B. Wells, Booker T. Washington, and WEB Du Bois, “who changed our lives.”
A site view of the African-American Heritage Museum + Black Veterans’ Archive created by Dr. Charles Smith in Aurora, Illinois from 1985 to ’99. More than 200 works from this site are now in the Art Preserve at Sheboygan.
Pointing to one figure, Smith said it was Stokely Carmichael, the Black Power activist and leader of the 1960s. The artist identifies this period as the point at which the black American community went astray.
“My thesis is in April 1968, when Dr. (Martin Luther) King died, that’s when we died, because there hasn’t been any movement forward since then,” he said.
Immediately after King was shot, the leaders of the movement should have gathered in that motel room for prayer and asked God, “Who should lead us now? … But they didn’t, and that’s why they’re scattered and confused everywhere,” he said.
A strong advocate of black empowerment, Smith is not afraid to criticize institutions. “One hundred years of the NAACP… how come Black Lives Matter can do more in less than two years than you can in 50 years?” he asked rhetorically.
But he’s glad to be speaking to a Milwaukee group, he said, because Milwaukee has a black-owned bank.
Kohler’s Art Preserve in Sheboygan has more than 200 artworks by Dr. Charles Smith, whose constant preoccupation is the history of the blacks.
Smith’s contemporary figures embody the austere symbolism of a prophet. A young female character is 13 years old and pregnant. “I have nowhere to go but live with her mother. Look at the damage and trauma she has caused to this family,” he said.
A boy portrayed in chains has “been in front of the judge a few times and told him to change his life, change his behavior or you will go to prison”.
Smith believes that the tradition of elders teaching young people about their culture and life has been broken. He sees his work as an attempt to close this educational gap.
Smith has created more than 500 characters in his artistic life. When making a new work, his process often involves “a lot of reading,” he said.
A recent work began with the inspiration to take a five-gallon plastic jug of water and place a child on one side, a baby in front and the mother on the back – a reference to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
“I let the spirit guide me just like it told me to get this water bottle,” Smith said. “All I do is let God guide me in what to do.”
dr Charles Smith sits with some of his artwork at the Kohler Art Preserve in Sheboygan.
As strict as he can be, Smith is optimistic about the future because he’s spoken to so many people who are “sincere about change and looking for change that just needs direction.” He urges young people to stay in school and stay focused.
One of his characters is dominated by a large clock. Everyone has a watch, and when it runs out you die, he said, emphasizing his memento mori.
As long as he can, he will follow his calling. “I’m still the guy in the corner trying to figure out why this killing is happening, why the family is broken,” he said.
The Art Preserve is located at 3636 Lower Falls Road, Sheboygan approximately 3 miles from the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Opening hours are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; 10:00-20:00 on Thursdays; Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The entries are time-controlled. The Kohler recommends a reservation at jmkac.org/art-preserve or by calling 920-453-0346. Admission is free; Donations are accepted at reception. All visitors must wear a mask.
Contact Jim Higgins at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter at @jhiggy.
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This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Charles Smith Finds a Home for Black Figures at Sheboygan’s Art Preserve
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