Inch Squares No. 3

Label

If you don’t feel that there’s a very strange quality in [art] that can only be called a spiritual quality, then . . . you are missing practically the whole thing. --Leon Polk Smith

Polk Smith dedicated his art to patterns and abstract geometries. His early exposure in Oklahoma to Native American patterning used in everything from ceramics to weaving is reflected in his work. His engagement with abstraction, this time from Europe, continued in the 1940s through his work at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (later the Guggenheim). His emphasis on single-colored shapes obscures his role in painting the squares—his mark is hard to detect.

From the 2023 exhibition The Painter's Hand: U.S. Abstraction since 1950, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director

If you don’t feel that there’s a very strange quality in [art] that can only be called a spiritual quality, then . . . you are missing practically the whole thing. -- Leon Polk Smith

Polk Smith dedicated his art to patterns and abstract geometries. His approach revealed his early exposure in Oklahoma to the Native American patterning in the region’s beadwork, textiles, and jewelry. This background was reinforced by his exposure to European abstraction while working at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (later the Guggenheim) in the 1940s. His emphasis was always on his shapes and colors rather than his role in painting them—his mark is hard to detect.

From the 2025 exhibition Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961 Director; Jami Powell, Associate Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Indigenous Art; and Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. and Harvey P. Hood 1918 Senior Curator of Academic Programing

Course History

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States, Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

ARTH 71, The "American Century": Modern Art in the United States. Mary Coffey, Winter 2015

Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Daniele Genadry, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Studio Art 15.04, Drawing I, Enrico Riley, Fall 2023

Studio Art 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Fall 2023

Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Jen Caine, Fall 2023

Writing 5.05, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Fall 2023

Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Fall 2023

Studio Art 25.02, Painting I, Lucy Mink Covello, Fall 2024

Art History 40.02, The American Century, Mary Coffey, Spring 2025

Exhibition History

Always Already: Abstraction in the United States, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 26,2025.

Galerie Denise Rene, Paris, France.

Gesture, Emotion, Shape: Sources of Abstraction by Philip Dytko, Class of 2017, Pauline Lewis, Class of 2016, and Amalia Siegel, Class of 2016, Art History 71: The American Century- Modern Art in the United States, Winter 2015, Mary Coffey, Class Project, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 14-July 12, 2015.

Jason McCoy Gallery, New York, New York.

The Painter's Hand: U.S. Abstraction since 1950, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe-Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 3-December 16, 2023.

Provenance

The Leon Polk Smith Foundation and Trust; sold to present collection, 2012.

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