Art Smith Modernist Opal Gold Brooch

Fusing eclectic influences such as Surrealism and African art, Art Smith was a leading mid-century modernist jeweler and one of the few African American designers to break into the field. His oversize geometric pieces with their innovative use of wire, silver forms, brass, aluminum, stone and glass elements were boldly sculptural yet lightweight, becoming popular in the 1940s and ’50s as expressive statements of adornment.

Born in Cuba to Jamaican parents, Smith moved as a child to Brooklyn, New York, in 1920. After showing an early aptitude for art, he earned a scholarship to study at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan. He was especially inspired by the pioneering African American jeweler Winifred Mason, who hired Smith to work at her studio. There he witnessed how she engaged with West Indian folk art through bronze and copper.

After graduating, Smith opened his first shop in 1946 on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village. Facing discrimination in the predominantly Italian area, he relocated to West Fourth Street where he would work until 1979. Smith developed relationships with stores like Bloomingdale’s as well as New York City’s vibrant Black cultural scene, from which his clients included Lena Horne and Duke Ellington. He also designed work for avant-garde Black dance companies such as those led by choreographers Talley Beatty and Pearl Primus and a brooch for Eleanor Roosevelt.

“The body is a component in design just as air and space are,” Smith once stated. Employing biomorphic shapes, he created works such as the Patina necklace that referenced Alexander Calder’s mobiles with its dangling silver cutouts as well as the Lava bracelet involving two layers of metal that undulate around the wrist.

Smith often used unconventional materials for fine jewelry that made it affordable to people beyond the elite, and he was a vocal advocate for Black and gay civil rights. In 2008, the Brooklyn Museum opened a retrospective of his work. His jewelry is included in the collections of major museums such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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