Leon Polk Smith

Abstract painter Leon Polk Smith developed a distinct formal vocabulary that combined Native American motifs, reflective of his Cherokee heritage, with European modernism---notably the art of Mondrian, whose work Smith first saw in 1936 while attending summer school in New York City. Later, Smith moved beyond the constraints of Neoplasticism to explore a wide range of geometric compositions, often based on interlocking forms. These hard-edged geometric compositions with vast expanses of color anticipated the Minimalist movement of the 1960s.