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Leon Polk Smith (1906–1996) was born in Oklahoma to migrant parents of partial Cherokee ancestry. He grew up surrounded by Chickasaw culture and in impoverished surroundings. He knew from an early age that art was key for him but as young adult, he initially lived as a journeyman laborer to help support his family. He subsequently attended Columbia Teachers College in New York City, proceeded to work as a teacher and administrator in Delaware, Georgia, and Florida, before finding his way back to New York City, all while making his own art. By 1941, Smith had his first solo show in New York City.

Over the subsequent 51 years, Leon Polk Smith gained a solid yet quiet position as an early and continued innovator and devotee to geometric abstraction. Having internalized the forms, meanings, and aesthetics of Native American culture that he experienced in his youth, along with the influences of Piet Mondrian, Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi, and other cultural approaches to image, shape, and color, Smith explored geometric abstraction in a way that was referential, personal, and yet generalized enough to be viewed by anyone.

A retrospective of Smith’s work was organized by The Brooklyn Museum, New York, in 1996. His work is in numerous public and private collections worldwide including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA; Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA; The Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio, USA; Crystal Bridges Museum of Art, Arkansas, USA; Dallas Museum of Art, Texas, USA; Detroit Institute of Art, Michigan, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, USA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA; Morgan Library and Museum, New York, USA; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Germany; Israel Museum, Jerusalem; MACBA – Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany; and Vancouver Art Gallery, British Columbia, Canada, among others.

In February, 2026, the Addison Gallery of American Art opens “Both Sides of the Line: Carmen Herrera & Leon Polk Smith,” organized by the University of Michigan Museum of Art.