Leon Polk Smith (1906 - 1996)

The geometric paintings of Leon Polk Smith combine the rhythmic patterns of his Cherokee ancestry with the Hard-Edged and Minimalist styles of abstraction that he helped popularize in New York during the latter half of the 20th century. Influenced by artist Piet Mondrian, he employed maximally reduced forms, characterized by just two colors on a canvas meeting in a sharply delineated edge. Smith helped develop American geometric abstraction.