Smith, William Arthur, 1918-1989

William Arthur Smith (1918-1989) was an American painter, illustrator and print-maker, particularly known for his landscapes and graphics.

Born in Toledo, Ohio on April 19, 1918, Smith studied art at the University of Toledo with Theodore J. Keane and later at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and L'Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. Smith was an Academician of the National Academy of Design, a member of the West Coast Watercolor Society, and a past president of the American Watercolor Society. He also belongs to the Audubon Association.

Smith won numerous awards, among them the National Academy of Design's coveted medal (twice), a grand prize and a gold medal from the society that awards the "Watercolor of the Year" (1957, 1965), and an honorary degree from the University of Toledo.

Smith's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Chrysler Corporation, Florida Southern College, the Library of Congress, and the Los Angeles Museum of Art, and he had exhibits at major museums in countries around the world, including India, Greece, Italy, Turkey and Japan. In the United States Smith's work was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the City Art Museum of St. Louis.

The United States sent Smith as a delegate to the International Conference on Plastic Arts in Venice in 1954, and he lectured extensively in the Philippines as well as in Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Burma, Nepal and Turkey.

From the guide to the William Arthur Smith Collection, 1950-1966, (Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries)