Palm Beach
Institute of Contemporary Art
Tony
Smith, Cross, 1960-62; Seton Smith, Outer Room with Doors, 1997; Kiki
Smith, Eve, 2001
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PALM BEACH INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART PRESENTS FIRST MUSEUM SURVEY
OF
WORK BY TONY, KIKI AND SETON SMITH
LAKE WORTH, FL. December 10, 2002 For the first time, major works by
the
renowned modernist artist Tony Smith and his daughters Chiara (Kiki) and
Seton will be assembled under one roof. The occasion is The Smiths:
Tony,
Kiki, Seton on view at the Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art
from
December 3, 2002 to March 23, 2003. The exhibition has been organized by
the Palm Beach ICA.
Taking as its starting point one American family, two generations of the
vanguard, three distinct visions, and an extensive range of media, the
loan survey will explore the imagery and concerns of these three
artists.
Accompanying the exhibition will be a fully illustrated book designed by
the innovative design team, COMA, of Amsterdam and New York. The
publication, also entitled The Smiths: Tony, Kiki, Seton will
feature
essays by writers Eleanor Heartney, Adrian Dannatt and David Pagel; an
essay by Michael Rush, director of the Palm Beach ICA; and an essay and
interviews with Kiki and Seton Smith and their mother Jane Smith by the
Paris, France- and Palm Beach-based curator Gilbert Brownstone, who
conceived and organized the exhibition for the museum.
It is difficult to find a common thread in the art of Tony, Kiki and
Seton Smith, said Mr. Brownstone. But, in fact, it was this wide
range
of content, approach, and sensibility, as well as the intensity of
concentration each artist brings to the task of making art, that
attracted
me to this exhibition project. I believe that this showing of
sculptures,
drawings, photographs and prints will prove to be a revelation for
viewers. PBICA Director Michael Rush added, This is an
extraordinary
opportunity for our visitors to experience the breadth of such
influential
work emanating from the same family. The show will remind us how closely
connected art and personal life can be.
Kiki Smith (1954 - ) says of her father in Tony Smith: Architect,
Painter,
Sculptor (1998), published by The Museum of Modern Art in
conjunction with
the exhibition of the same name: He was my model of being an artist
in
his devotion, perseverance and commitment to his vision, and how that
defines ones daily life.
Tony Smith (1912-1980) is renowned today for the large-scale abstract
sculptures he created in the last 20 years of his life. Yet the true
nature of his achievements as an architect, painter, and sculptor, is
more
nuanced. This complexity may be suggested by his career trajectory from
early drawing, painting and anatomy lessons at the Art Students League
in
New York, to courses in architecture and design at the New Bauhaus, to
an
apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, and a private practice as an
architect. Tony Smiths last built project, completed in 1960, was a
modernist studio structure in Southold, Long Island, designed for the
artist and gallerist Betty Parsons.
The portion of The Smiths: Tony, Kiki, Seton focusing on the work
of Tony
Smith features a series of sculptures created during the years following
the close of his architectural practice, when he mined the possibilities
of the cubic form in two-and three-dimensions. On view will be such
geometrically configured sculptures, cast in bronze with a black patina,
as Marriage (1961); Cross (1960-62); Mistake
(1963); and The Fourth Sign,
(1974).
Also on view will be a selection of paintings and drawing and several of
the cardboard models the artist created as maquettes for his large-scale
pieces. Two large-scale works fabricated of steel will be displayed;
The
Keys to Given! (1965), in the museum galleries and Duck
(1962), in a
public site in downtown Lake Worth, Florida.
For more than two decades, Kiki Smith has drawn on mythic, folk and
biblical stories to create work in a dizzying array of media and
installation forms: from sculptural works and installations
incorporating
bronze, wax, glass, paper, fabric, beads, and many other materials to
photographs, prints and drawings and video and sound works. The portion
of
this exhibition focusing on her vision will feature a range of works,
from
the bronze sculpture, Head with Bird (1994), and
three-dimensional fiber
work, Body (1995), to the 2002 series, Moon on Crutches,
as well as a
series of drawings and prints.
Kiki Smiths younger sister, Seton Smith (1955-), is well known for
her
large-format Cibachrome photographs of interiors--seemingly banal, often
blurry, and sometimes off-balanced or truncated. The artist has spoken
of
her wish to suggest a particular awareness of the psychology of
architectural space. Critic David Pagel has written that her photographs
are portals to a seemingly magical world where common objects are
suffused with more intrigue and enchantment than their literal, physical
form would ordinarily indicate.
The centerpiece of the exhibition section devoted to Seton Smith
comprises
a series of recent, large-scale color photographs. These
72x48-format
images enigmatically interweave an image of an anonymous interior and
staircase with a picture of fir trees in winter and a view of an
ancient-seeming Middle Eastern city seen at roofline level.
Gilbert Brownstone, the organizer of The Smiths: Tony, Kiki,
Seton is the
former Creative Director of Brownstone & Cie, Director and Curator of
the
Musée Picasso di Antibes, and Curator of Musée dArt Modern de la
Ville de
Paris. In 1999, Mr. Brownstone established the Brownstone Foundation, an
organization primarily devoted to the arts and humanities, which he
directs today.
Palm Beach Institute of Contemporary Art
Cited for its daring programme by The Art Newspaper (April
2002), the
Palm Beach ICA aims to serve as a place where large questions are posed
and investigated; as a venue for major national and international art in
all media; and as a meeting ground for the diverse populations who live
in
and visit the Palm Beach region. This exhibition and museum programs of
the Palm Beach ICA are generously supported by Robert M. and Mary
Montgomery.
PBICA is located at 601 Lake Avenue in Lake Worth, Fla. Hours are
Tues-Sun, 12-6pm. Admission: $3; $2, seniors and students. For more
information, the public may call the Palm Beach Institute of
Contemporary
Art at 561-582-0006, or visit http://www.palmbeachica.org
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