Tuffy Made Safe, 2021
MALCOLM MOBUTU SMITH
Tuffy Made Safe, 2021
Stoneware, slip and glaze
16 x 19 x 7 in
Li’l Tuffy is a recurrent motif in Smith’s work A black child in a red, green, and black jumpsuit. The character was created by Smith’s mother Jean Pajot Smith, and featured in two children’s books 1st published by Johnson publishing/Ebony Jr! in the 1970s. The character was created in the image of her multiracial children. In No More Words a defiant Li’l Tuffy raises a fist in a triumphant pose of “Black Power.”
