B.H.

Notes

Kimber Smith was an abstract artist. He first came to public attention in 1951 when he exhibited alongside the painter Joan Mitchell at The New Gallery, and he held his first solo exhibition in 1954. During the 1950s and early 1960s, Smith was part of a vibrant expatriate community of American painters living in Paris, a period that deeply shaped his artistic development. In 1966, he returned to New York, where he continued to refine his bold exploration of color, form, and spatial relationships within abstraction.

In addition to his studio practice, Smith was an educator, teaching at the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio. His contributions to the arts were recognized in 1971 when he was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. Over his career and posthumously, Smith’s work has been exhibited widely in major museums across the United States and Europe. His paintings and works on paper are included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, securing his legacy as a significant figure in post-war American abstraction.