Dreamer, 2004 — Oil on Canvas by Stacy Stewart Smith (58” × 58”)

Dreamer
Oil on canvas | 58” × 58” | 2004
Stacy Stewart Smith

Stacy Stewart Smith calls himself an abstractrealist. Dreamer, painted in 2004, is an early work — one that does not yet exemplify all the components of the artist's fully developed style, but is no less significant for it. Simple and profound, the painting presents a male figure floating amid a cloudy blue sky. The subject's eyes carry the innocence of a child, yet he is not young. They are almost sad — the gaze of someone suspended between worlds, looking upward as if seeing and hearing something beyond the visible. It is the expression of a dream state.

Given the artist's Christian studies and religious background, the symbolism is layered and deliberate. Smith paints a small, floating figure of a young, muscular Black man in mid-air, wearing only white underwear, with a rope attached to his left leg. The rope carries multiple readings simultaneously. Historically, this type of cord was associated with the lynching of Africans during slavery and its aftermath. In the painting, however, the cord is recast as a symbol of freedom — the subject uses it volitionally, as a tether to nature rather than a restraint imposed upon him.

The painting is a narrative of transcendence. Smith draws on the experience of the Apostle John in the Book of Revelation, who describes being en pneumati — a Koine Greek phrase meaning “in the Spirit” — a change of location so spiritual it is simultaneously physical. Some might call it an out-of-body experience. Smith casts himself and the viewer as John: present in two states of consciousness at once.

The rope, then, holds several truths at once. It is a means of return — pulling the dreamer back to reality. It is also a warning: that when one rises, there are forces that seek to pull one down. And it carries a third reading rooted in Old Testament tradition, in which Hebrew high priests entered the Holy of Holies with a rope tied to their body — so that, should they perish in the presence of God, their body could be retrieved, for no other person was permitted to enter that sacred space.

The white underwear, a recurring motif in Smith's figurative work, represents the freedom of en pneumati — the most unguarded, unadorned state of the human body — and is consistent with traditional depictions of the Crucifixion in Western art history.

Dreamer is a work of quiet power: a painting that holds history, theology, and personal vision in a single floating figure against an open sky.

Acquisition

• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 58” × 58” (147.3 cm × 147.3 cm)
• Year: 2004
• Condition: Excellent
• Provenance: Artist's collection, New York City
• Ships from New York City; white-glove shipping available upon request