Leon Polk Smith papers

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Leon Polk Smith papers

1921-1997

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw949ddcac6-68cb-4837-a23f-a9606981815b

The papers of New York abstract painter Leon Polk Smith measure 7.2 linear feet and date from 1921 to 1997. The papers consist of biographical material, business and personal correspondence, interview transcripts and an interview video recording, writings, financial records for the corporate entity Leon Polk Smith, Inc., printed material, photographic material, and a scrapbook of newspaper clippings.Biographical material includes official affidavits, certificates, passports, expense receipts, and a travel expense notebook. A curriculum vitae, family history, and medical records are also included in the series.Correspondence, both business and personal, comprises the bulk of the collection. This includes correspondence between Smith and his life companion, Robert Jamieson; art critics Arthur C. Danto, Claudine Humblet, and David Galloway; and artists Gego (Gertrude Goldschmidt) and Ray Johnson. Business correspondence relates to Smith's various gallery and museum exhibitions, loans, and sales. There is extensive correspondence between Smith and the Brooklyn Museum, Butler Institute of American Art, Di Laurenti Gallery, Edition and Galerie Hoffmann, Galerie Denise Rene, Meyers/Bloom Gallery, Washburn Gallery, and the Wilhelm-Hack Museum. The business subseries also includes correspondence between Smith and his alma mater, East Central University, formerly known as Oklahoma State University.Interviews consist of six typewritten transcripts of interviews conducted with Smith over the course of his professional career from 1950 to 1993, a 1995 video interview of museum director Robert T. Buck discussing the Brooklyn Museum's exhibition of Leon Polk Smith for the television program <emph render="italic">National Arts</emph>, and a 1965 interview transcript with gallery owner Lucile Horsley.Writings include sixteen published and unpublished scholarly essays on Smith and his work. The series also includes notes and a brief artist's statement by Smith regarding the pros and cons of modern art galleries.Financial records are 1978-1989 federal income tax filings and routine tax preparation and payment receipts for the corporate entity Leon Polk Smith, Inc. Smith's personal filing records from 1987-1989 are also included in this series.Printed material consists of two books, including the Brooklyn Museum's monograph <emph render="italic">Leon Polk Smith: American Painter</emph>, newspaper clippings reviewing Smith's work, and exhibition announcements and catalogs of Smith's museum and gallery shows from 1941 to 1997.A scrapbook contains newspaper clippings documenting Smith's years as an educator and artist in Oklahoma in the 1930s and 1940s.Photographs are of Smith and his acquaintances circa 1920-1960, and a representative selection of photographs and color slides of Smith's artwork from 1939 to 1960.

Archives of American Art

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6630726

Archives of American Art

Related Entities

There are 18 Entities related to this resource.

Galloway, David Darryl

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66m4fv0 (person)

Jamieson, Robert Stuart, 1922-2008

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qz3kc3 (person)

Epithet: FSA, ballad collector British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000750.0x0002f7 Epithet: ballad collector British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000214.0x000358 ...

Galerie Denise ReneĢ.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n351fw (corporateBody)

East Central Oklahoma State University.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pw1psz (corporateBody)

Humblet, Claudine, 1946-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6z336x8 (person)

Jamieson, Robert

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vz3h5t (person)

Meyers/Bloom Gallery

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nd14mz (corporateBody)

Gego

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r03106 (person)

Washburn Gallery (New York, N.Y.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hn0cvs (corporateBody)

Galloway, David D.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rg8vpt (person)

Danto, Arthur C., 1924-2013

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qf9s6f (person)

Professor of philosophy, Columbia University, 1952 to date. (Columbia University M.A., 1949; Ph.D., 1952). From the description of Arthur Coleman Danto manuscripts, 1980-1985. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 489376451 Art critic; New York, N.Y. Danto was Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University. Since 1984, he has been art critic for The Nation. From the descript...

Wilhelm-Hack-Museum

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sn5dbv (corporateBody)

Butler Institute of American Art

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r264vg (corporateBody)

Youngstown, Ohio. Earlier name: Butler Art Insitute. From the description of Butler Institute of American Art records, 1889-1974. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122557167 ...

Galerie Denise Rene

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j236nm (corporateBody)

Brooklyn Museum

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6ff7fpb (corporateBody)

The origins of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences extend back to 1823, with the founding of the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library. The Library, located at the corner of Cranberry and Henry Streets in the neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, was established for the education and cultural enrichment of young tradesmen. In 1841, the Library relocated to the building of the Brooklyn Lyceum, an organization devoted to intellectual pursuits in the arts and sciences, at the corner of Washington and C...

Johnson, Ray, 1927-1995

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63n2610 (person)

Ray Johnson (1927-1995) was a painter from Locust Valley, N.Y. From the description of Oral history interview with Ray Johnson, 1968 Apr. 17 [sound recording]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 82223586 Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Ray Johnson is frequently referred to as the "father of mail art." He attended Black Mountain College in North Carolina from 1945 to 1948, then moved to New York. Although he worked as an abstract painter for several years, by 1953 Johnson h...

Smith, Leon Polk, 1906-1996

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kw6qcz (person)

Painter; New York, N.Y. Born 1906; Died 1996. From the description of Leon Polk Smith papers 1927-1997. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 79604780 From the description of Leon Polk Smith papers 1927-1997. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 756821093 Leon Polk Smith (1906-1996) worked primarily in New York City as a painter, educator, and lecturer. He is considered one of the founders of the hard edge style of minimalist abstract art. Smith was born...

Buck, Robert T.,

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rr2krw (person)

Robert Treat Buck, Jr. joined the Albright-Knox Art Gallery as assistant director in 1970. On July 1, 1973, he succeeded retiring director Gordon M. Smith. Buck's directorship of the Albright-Knox lasted exactly 10 years. During this time, he strengthened the Gallery's education programs and oversaw the publication of a major collection catalogue, Painting and Sculpture, from Antiquity to 1942 (1979). His term also included a considerable expansion in Buffalo Fine Arts Academy (B.F....