Leon Polk Smith’s Library

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The books and printed matter listed below were the property of Leon Polk Smith and his life partner Robert (Bob) Jamieson (1927- 2020). They are now kept in the Leon Polk Smith Foundation’s art warehouse space and office space in New York City. They were inherited upon Smith’s death in 1996 by Jamieson and augmented by an ongoing collection of Smith-related art publications and other printed matter that came to Jamieson after Smith’s death and continue to be added to by the Foundation’ library holdings. Jamieson played a primary role in Smith’s art practice and with the Leon Polk Smith Foundation through the first decades of its operation.

Unless considered directly pertinent to understanding Smith’s art and his art historical and intellectual interests, non-art reference books were left in Shoreham, New York and were inherited by Jamieson’s family. They reflected Jamieson’s interests in nature, gardening, health, poetry, sociology, history, and general reference texts.The main subject overlap in Smith’s and Jamieson’s book collections is poetry. Other than one novel by the Canadian writer Robertson Davies, that, according to Jamieson, was given to Smith by a friend, no fiction books were found in the Shoreham house.

The library existed at their country house (which was for many years their prime residence) in Shoreham, New York, a village on the North Shore of Long Island and in their apartment in New York City on the west side of Union Square in Manhattan. Jamieson gave up the New York City apartment in 2006, at which time the library was entirely consolidated at the Shoreham residence. Jamieson donated these books and periodicals to the Leon Polk Smith Foundation in 2010, 2011, and 2019. Excepting what was brought to Shoreham from the Union Square apartment when it was vacated, all of these books and printed materials had remained pretty much untouched for the 15 years since Leon Polk Smith’s death and being transferred, starting in 2010, to the Leon Polk Smith Foundation’s art storage warehouse space in upper Manhattan.

The books and some of the early periodicals were in two wood bookshelves on the first floor of the Shoreham house. The art books were mostly shelved separately by Jamieson from the books on other subjects, though there was some intermingling. The art books located in the two wood bookshelves on the first floor were the first to be brought to the Foundation’s warehouse in New York City and to be stored and catalogued.

The other location of Smith’s library was on the Shoreham house’s mezzanine floor. Located between the first floor and the bedrooms on the second floor, the mezzanine’s large glass picture window and doorway faced the back of the property’s lawn, plantings, and a screened gazebo. Other art books and periodicals relating to Smith and his work were on a lengthy horizonal, two-shelf bookcase and in the center of the mezzanine space stacked on, beneath, or alongside a large low coffee table.

Many books on a shelf from Leon Polk Smith's library

Very few purchases of art publications and periodicals were made by Jamieson after Smith’s death in late 1996, though numerous complimentary books and periodicals relating to solo or group exhibitions of Smith’s art or their other artist colleagues and friends were sent to Jamieson as Smith’s life partner and heir after Smith’s death in late 1996. The publications on the Shoreham house’s mezzanine level were transferred to Leon Polk Smith Foundation’s storage space in New York City in 2011 and 2019.

No books were kept elsewhere in the Shoreham house. Smith’s lifetime library was not large, with around 220 books, catalogues, periodicals, magazines, and other printed matter on him, other artists, and art movements. Their retention over many decades with inscriptions and other signs of use indicate their importance to him. The multiple volumes on Arp, Franz Kline, Matisse, Mondrian, Native American art and history highlight, and Picasso his special interests.

Several ledger books were found after Jamieson’s death that had been carefully kept and annotated by Smith and Jamieson. In individual and double-spread pages and document Smith’s artworks that left his studio starting in the 1940s. Found after Jamieson’s death the Leon Polk Smith Foundation’s library and archives holdings now include Accompanied with sketches, illustrations, and some photos each of the works are detailed with their title, date, media, dimensions, shifting locations, exhibition, provenance, and condition and conservation notations.

The ledger books significantly augment the extensive archival resources bequeathed by Smith’s and his estate to the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Museum where they can be accessed and through which they are available online as well. The original ledger books can be seen at the Leon Polk Smith Foundation storage and office space in Chelsea in NYC by request to the Smith Foundation staff. Facsimiles of the books’ pages have been given by the Smith Foundation to the Archives of American art, where the original books will eventually be placed.

Many books on a shelf from Leon Polk Smith's library

Leon Polk Smith’s Art Books and Catalogues

Douglas Abdell: Neue Skulpturen, Amerika Haus Berlin with the Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, 1981. Inscribed: For Leon Smith with great respect for your work, Douglas, with a geometric face drawing

Abstract Konkret: New Acquisitions from the Collection of the Museum, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, 1986

Abstract Trompe L’Oeil Albers, Anuszkiewicz, Herbin, Poons, Vasarely, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, 1965

African American artists group show/Encounters, James B. Duke Library, Johns Smith University, Charlotte, N. Carolina, 1968

Lawrence Alloway, Topics in American Art since 1945, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1975 pgs. 67-75

Richard Anuszkiewicz: Four Decades, Richard Green Gallery, no date, circa 1988

Arp, edited by James Thrall Soby, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1958

Architectur heute,das kunstwerk, Agis-Verlag Krefeld und Baden-Baden, Germany 1956/57

Arp on Arp, Poems, Essays, Memories, Jean Arp, edited by Marcel Jean, The Documents of 20th-Century Art, Viking publishers, New York, 1972

Hans Arp and Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, New York, 1950

The International Fair for Contemporary Art, 1992, Frankfurt, Germany, pgs. 134-135

Art of the 20th Century, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Staatliche Museum, Berlin, Germany, circa 1980

Milton Avery Drawings, Burt Chernow, Connecticut Fine Arts, Inc. Westport, Conn., 1973

Baerttling Creator of Open Form, Galerie Denise Rene, Paris, France and New York, 1974

Albert Barnes, The Art of Painting, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1937

Nationalgalerie Berlin, Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts: Art of the 20th Century, not dated, circa 1980

Bob Bonies, Werke 1965-1986, Bernard Holeczek, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum Ludwigshafen/Rh. Kunstler und Autoren,1986

Alberto Burri: 18 Paintings 1953-1986, DiLaurenti Gallery, New York, New York, 1986

Pierre Camille, essay by the artist, Galerie Chalette, 1963

Luis Camnitzer, Zanoobia – a Ship, Galerie Basta, Hamburg, Germany, 1995

Luis Camnitzer, Retrospective Exhibition 1966-1990, Lehman College Art Gallery, New York City, 1991

Marc Chagall: Recent Work, Galerie Chalette, 1956

Marc Chagall: A Selection of Painting from American Museums and Private Collections, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1958, Includes two works by LPS, Mutual Invasion, 1961 and Correspondence Red-Green, 1967

Contemporary Screens, Fabbri Butera, The Art Museum Association of America, 1986, pgs. 15, 36

Dallas Museum of Art, Bulletins, 1983/84 and 1984 Spring

Arthur B. Danto, Encounters and Reflections: Art in the Historical Present, The Noonday Press, Farrar Strauss Giroux, New York, 1991 Inscribed: For Leon Polk Smith in friendship & esteem – Arthur Danto, Sept 18, 1991

The Art of Thomas Wilner Dewing: Beauty Reconfigured, Susan A. Hobbs with an essay by Barbara Dayer Gallati, The Brooklyn Museum, with Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London, 1996

Burgoyne Diller Paintings, Constructions, Drawings, Watercolors, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1961

Dowel Paintings, Constructions, Taleaux-Objects 1924-1960, Galerie Chalette, 1961

East Hampton Avant-Garde A Salute to the Signa Gallery 1957-1960, Guild Hall Museum, 1990, East Hampton, pgs. 15 and 66

Helmut Federle Paintings, Drawings, 1989, Musee de Grenoble, France

Dord Fitz Retrospective Drawings, Paintings, & Sculpture 1934-1988, Area Arts Foundation, Amarillo, Texas, 1988

Selections from The Guggenheim Museum Collection 1900-1970, Guggenheim Museum, New York, p. 419

Werner Heldt , Kunsthalle Nurnberg und Nicolaische, 1989

Carmen Herrera: The Black and White Paintings 1951-1989, Carolina Ponce de Leon, El Museo del Barrio, New York City, 1998. Note: This book was not owned by Smith, but likely was a gift to Jamieson from Herrera.  Smith, Jamieson and Herrera were close friends and New York neighbors on East 19th Street.

Budd Hopkins Sculpture, essay by the artist, self-published, 1988.

The American Heritage Book of Indians, Editors of American Heritage Publishers Co.,Inc., Simon & Schuster, Inc. 1961.

Note: unless this copy was acquired used, this book with a faded and worn book cover is the most handled in Smith’s library. It contains two drawings on napkins, one of leaves and the other of a coffee pot with the note “14th Str. Between 6th and 7th Spanish store

The American Indian Observed, Frderick J. Dockstader, M. Knoedler & Co, New York, 1971

The Smithsonian Book of North American Indians Before the Coming of the Europeans, Phillip Kopper, Smithsonian Books, 1986

Objects of Myths and Memory American Indian Art at the Brooklyn Museum, University of Washington Press, 1994, given to Smith by Robert Buck, Director of the Brooklyn Museum, inscribed with “after an opening night with you and Bob, please accept this souvenir, Bob”

Robert Indiana, Denise Rene Gallery, 1972

Alfred Jensen: Paintings and Works on Paper, essays by Maria Reidelbach and Peter Schjeldahl, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, 1985

Consuelo Kanaga: An American Photographer, Barbara Head Milstein, Sarah M. Lowe, The Brooklyn Museum in association with the University of Washington Press, Brooklyn and Seattle, 1992

Kandinsky, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1957

Earl Kirkham, Memorial Exhibition, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, D.C. 1966

[Frederick] Kiesler: Creatures, Landscapes, Prairies, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, 1966

Paul Klee, Handzeichnungen, Erschienen Im Insel-Verlag, MCMLII  1952

Franz Kline New Paintings, Sidney Janis Gallery, 1961

Franz Kline Paintings 1950-1961, Dwan Gallery, Los Angeles, California, March 1963

Franz Kline Memorial Exhibition, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, December 1963

Kline, essay by Thomas B. Hess that was originally a memorial editorial in Art News, in the summer issue, 1962, Marisa Del Re Gallery, Inc. New York, 1984

Obeah Kokie (1883-1957), Michiaki Kawakita, English adaption by Roy Andrew Miller, Kodansha Library of Japanese Art, Charles E. Tuttle: Company, Rutland, Vermont Tokyo, Japan, 1957

When the Cathedrals were White, Le Corbusier, Reynal & Hitchcock, 1947. Inscribed: Happy Birthday darling with love from Beatrix, May 2, 1947, N. York City

Le Corbusier, Astra – Arerngarium Architects, Jean Alazard, Electra Editrice, Milan and Florence, Italy, 1952

Fernand Leger The Figure, text by Leger, Galerie Chalette, New York, April, 1965

Late-Twentieth Century Art: The Sydney and Frances Lewis Collection Foundation, Susan Butler, Anderson Gallery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, 1978

Richard Paul Lohse, Musee de Grenoble, Skira, 1988

The Three Worlds of Los Angeles, Architectural Exhibit, Organized by Beata Inaya, Sponsored by the United States Information Service and Cultural Centers in Europe, essays by David Gebhard, ReynerBanham, Yanna Friedman, Don MacMasters and Hans Hollein 1974. With note from Inaya to Leon and Bob

Matisse, preface by Jean Cassou, Les Edition Braun & Co. Paris, 1939

Henri Matisse Lithographs, Linoleum Cuts, Aquatints 1925-1953, Galerie Chalette, New York, not dated, but likely circa 1953

Etchings by Matisse, William S. Lieberman, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Simon and Schuster, not dated, but likely circa 1954

Art of the Maya, Ferdinand Anton, Thames and Hudson, London, 1968/70

Moderns in Mind: Gerome Kamrowski, Lee Mullican, Gordon Onslow-Ford, Artists Space, New York, 1986

Mikiya Matsuda, Tokyo, The Vis-à-vis Art Foundation, edition of 300, #17 in edition, produced by the Print Center, New York 1992

Mikiya Matsuda, Tea Before Eat, Vis-à-vis Art Foundation, New York, edition of 300, AP 12/75, The Print Center, 2001 [this book is included though given to Robert Jamison after Smith’s death].

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Memorial, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, The Museum of Non-Objective Painting, New York, 1947

Mondrian, essay and interview with the artist James Johnson Sweeney, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1948

Mondrian from the years of 1900-1943, Sidney Janis Gallery, quotations from Mondrian’s writtings, 1957

Piet Mondrian Centennial Exhibition, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1971

Piet Mondrian: An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors, Sidney Gallery, New York 1963

Mondrian and De Stijl, Serge Lemoine, Art Data, London,1987

Piet Mondrian Life and Work, Michel Seuphor, Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York, n.d. (needs to be checked), inscribed as ”From the library of Leon Polk Smith”

The Home Place, Wright Morris, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York and London, 1948 Note: This is one of two books of a photographer’s work owned by Leon Polk Smith.

Pastels D’Aurelie Nemours, Serge Lemoine, Offizin Zurich, Galerie Schlegi, Zurich, Switzerland, 1992

Nevelson, forward by Kenneth Sawyer, poem by Jean Arp, Commentary by Georges Mathieu, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, n.d. circa 1961?

Kenzo Okada Paintings, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, 1967

Paris-New York, Centre national d’art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1977, p.441

Betty Parsons paintings, gouaches and sculpture 1955-68, Preface by Bryan Robertson and essay by Lawrence  Alloway, interview with Colette Roberts, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1968

Picasso: Forty Years of his art, edited by Alfred H. Barr, Jr. with statements by the artist, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1939

Picasso and the Human Comedy, Teriade, Michael Leiris, Rebecca West, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1954

Picasso: A Study of His Work, Frank Elgar, Robert Maillard, Frederick A. Praeger, New York, 1956

Picasso “The Women”, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1956

6 Contemporary Polish Painters, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1981

Positionen der knonkreten und konstruktiven kunst, siftung Bauhaus, Dessau, Galerie & Edition Hoffmann, 1999

Post-Impressionism from Van Gogh to Gauguin, John Rewald, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1956

Wallace Putnam, Neuberger Museum, State University of New York, College at Purchase, Purchase, New York, 1978

Sao Paulo 9, United States of America Edward Hopper and Environment U.S.A, 1957-1967, National Collection of Fine Arts, The Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1967

Werner Schmidt, E’ Gallery, Zurich, 1990, Inscribed “To Leon and Bob and the Union Square Lights-Werner”

Kurt Schwitters, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France, 1994, with a single sheet; illustration of a Schwitters work formerly owned by Leon Polk Smith

Michael Seuphor, Dictionary of Abstract Painting, Tutor Publishing Company, New York, 1957, p. 264

Gustave Singier, Galerie Chalette, New York, 1962

Masters of the Sixties: From New Realism to Pop Art, Marisa Del Re Gallery, New York, text by Sam Hunter, 1984

Saul Steinberg, exhibition catalogue, Sidney Janis Gallery, New York, New York, 1966

Donald Sultan, exhibition catalogue, Blum Helman, New York, New York, 1984

Donald Sultan, exhibition catalogue, Waddington Galleries, London, England, 1990

Donald Sultan, Paintings, Knoedler & Company, New York, New York, 1990. Note: Donald Sultan worked at the Denise Rene Gallery, where he met LPS

Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Carolyn Lanchner, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1981

Wayne Thiebaud, essay and interview with the artist John Coplans, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California, 1968. InscribedTo Leon Best Wishes W. Thiebaud, summer 1972”

Bill Thompson, exhibition catalogue, In Kahn Gallery, New York, NY 1996

Bill Thompson, exhibition catalogue, Nielsen Gallery, Boston and The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio, 1993, with review of the show from The Christian Science Monitor

Toulouse-Lautrec paintings drawings posters and lithographs, The Museum of Modern Art, New York 2000

True Grit: Lee Bontecou, Louise Bourgeoise, Jay DeFeo, Clare Falkenstein, Nancy Grossman, Louise Nevelson, Nancy Spero, Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, New York, New York 2000

A Selection of 20th Century Art of 3 Generations, Sidney Janis Gallery New York, 1964

Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart, statement by Dietrich Helms, Galerie Muller, Cologne, Germany, 1970

Esteban Vicente Selected Paintings 1952-1986 A Retrospective View, Yares Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona, 1987

Edward Weston, Essay by Eleanor Green, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, 1966

Poetry, Essays, and Non-Visual Art Books

Harper Brown Poetry, edited by Leonard J. Epstein, Park Place Publications, Pacific Brave, California, 1992, inscribed: “For Leon Polk Smith-_an important part of our New York life, that enriched our Carmel years. Love Eve”

John Dewey, Essays in Experimental Logic, Dover Publications, New York, no date

Caroling Dusk: An Anthology of Verse by Negro Poets, edited by Countee Cullen, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1927, inscribed Leon P. Smith

ANAPAO; An American Indian Odyssey, Jamake Highwater, Harper & Row, Colophon Books, 1980, Inscribed: “For Leon with affection Jamake”

Ishi in Two Worlds, Theodora Kroeber, University of California Press, 1974

A Guide to No, P.G. O’Neill, Hinoki Shotren, Tokyo & Kyoto Japan. Inscribed: “For Bob Jamieson, 1958”

Cloth of the Tempest, Kenneth Patchen, Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York and London, 1943

The Journal of Albion Moonlight, Kenneth Patchen, The United Book Guild, New York, 1944

Towards a New Music: Music and Electricity, Carlos Chavez, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. 1937. Inscribed by the author

Living in the Future: International House New York Seventy-Five Years, text Lee Hall, published by International House, New York, date [Lee Hall was a friend of Smith’s through her close association with Betty Parsons, the artist and art dealer who one of the first art dealers to represented Smith.]

Many books on a shelf from Leon Polk Smith's library


Publications with illustrations of art by and texts on Leon Polk Smith and his art

Abstraction Geometry Painting: Selected Geometric Abstract Painting in America Since 1945, organized by Michael Auping, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, New York-Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1989, illustrates Stone Wall, 1956 and Three Yellow Ovals, 1967, pgs. 126 & 127

American Abstract Painters, Arthur Tooth and Sons, London 196. illustrates Cobalt Violet Deep-Yellow, 1960

Amerikanische Malerei 1930-1980, Haus der Kunst, Munich, 1982, illustrates Homage to Victory Boogie Woogie, 1946-47 p. 68

L’art contemporain, Denise Rene Hans Meyer Galleries, 1973, Paris, Dusseldorf, New York, 1973, illustrates Lami, 1958

Art Frankfurt 1992, The International Fair for Contemporary Art, Hoffman Gallery, Friedberg, Germany, illustrates Constellation No. 5, 1972, p. 135

Arte e Scienza Spazio Colore, Edizoni La Biennale di Venezia, realizzazione Electra Editrice, 1986, Illustrates Constellation Milky Way, 1970, p. 181 Catalogue dedicated to Smith by one of co-curators, Fausta Squatriti

The CIBA-GEIGY Collection of Contemporary Paintings: Visual R & D; A Corporation Collects, University Art Museum, The University of Texas, 1973

65th American Exhibition of American Paintings and Sculptures, The Art Institute of Chicago, 1962,  includes The Cloud, 1961, High Plateau, 1961, Yellow Point, 1961

CONSTRUCTION AND GEOMETRY IN PAINTING FROM MALEVITCH TO “TOMORROW”, Galerie Chalette, New York 1980, Black-Cooper, 1956/1957 illustrated, and Composition 1100, 1959

1976-1986 Ten Years of Collecting Contemporary Art Sections for the Edward R. Downe Collection, Wellesley College Museum, Massachusetts, illustrates Correspondence Orange-Red, 1968 p. 58

The Folding Image: Screens by Western Artists of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Michael Komanecky and Virginia Fabbri Butera, Yale University Art Gallery, National Gallery of Art, 1984, illustrates two screen paintings and tabletop pieces Formen der Farbe, Wurttenbergischer  Kunstverein Stuttgart Kunstgebaude am Schlossplatz, 1967 pgs.280-283, Illustrates Correspondence Yellow Point, p.32

Image d’une collection Musee de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, Reunion des musees nationaux 1999, Smith works illustrated on pps.208, 209 with a card from the museum’s chief curator, Serge Lemoin.

Intuitive und constructive Geometrie, Ina Prinz, Arithmeum, Bonn, Germany, 2008,Illustrates Composition N. 1502, 1947

Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, 1999, Constellation No. 10 blue red, 1972 p.241

Kunst im Auffbruch: Abstraction between 1945 and 1959, Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Smith’s Homage to Victory Boogie-Woogie N. 1, 1946

Kunst in del lucht Goethe-Institut, Osaka, Japan, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van Belgie Moderne Kunst, Brussel, illustrates 2 kites, Kerori and Rokkaku Kites by Smith , p. 246, 1991

Museum fur Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Edition Braus, Heidelberg, Germany, 1993, illustrates Constellation 5, 1972, pp.310, 311

A Contemporary Collection of Painting and Sculpture: Selected from the Collection of Eleanor Ward, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, Connecticut, 1965 illustrates Smith’s The River, 1961 68×68 in.

Neus Museum, Staatliches Museum fur Kunst und Design in Nurnberg, Nurnberg, Germany. Illustrates Long Journey and Green-Two Black Edges, pp 130,131

The New American Abstraction 1950-1970, Claudine Humblet, First Volume, Skira, Milano, Italy, pp. 202-265, illustrates multiple LPS works

The New York School The Painters & Sculptors of the Fifties, Irving Sandler, Icon Editions, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, Hagerstown, San Francisco, London, 1978, Illustrates Anitou, 1958, May Twenty, 1959, Expanse, 1959, and Correspondence: Red Black, 1960, pp. 217, 225, 226, 227

Painters at UC Davis A retrospective exhibition in two parts, 1984, illustrates  Untitled, 1972, p.28

United States Embassy Sarajevo, Art in Embassies Program, 2006, illustrates Center Columns, Blue-White, 1946

Vormen van de kleur-New Shapes of Color, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland, 1967

Wein Kunst der letzten 30 jahve , Vienna Museum of moderner kunst, Austria, illustrates Correspondence Orange Blue, 1965

Magazines and periodicals

Art and Literature 3, Autumn -Winter, 1964, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1964, contains a conversation with d’ Arcy Haymans and Smith, pp. 82-103

Art and Literature 4, Paris and Lausanne, Switzerland, Spring. 1965

Art and Literature 5, Lausanne, Switzerland, Summer, 1965

Art Criticism, Vol.5, No.2, edited by Donald Kuspit, State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York, 1989

Art Criticism, Vol.6, No.2, edited by Donald Kuspit, State University of New York at Stony Brook, New York, 1990

ARTFORUM, Robert Pincus Witten, review of Galerie Chalette, , pp, 76-77

ARTFORUM, January 1979, article by pp. 30, 31

ARTFORUM, reproduction and text in Nicholas Calas article, pp. 48, 49, December 1983

ARTFORUM, February 1971

ARTFORUM, Advertisement, Washburn Gallery, Constellations 1967-1973

ARTFORUM, February 1985

ARTFORUM, advertisement, Painting and Constructions, Burnett Miller Gallery Gallery, May 15-June 20, 1987

ARTFORUM, advertisement for Smith show at R. H. Love Modern Gallery, Chicago, Ill, February, 1988, p.45

Art in America special 50th Anniversary issue, Summer, 1964, illustrates two Smith drawings,  pp. 76, 77   

Art in America, Lawrence Alloway, Dealings in Equivalences, July-August 1974, pp. 58-61

Art in America, advertisement for Constellations 1967-1973, January 11-February 24,1984, Washburn Gallery, New York

Art in America, review of LPS exhibition at Ruth Siegel Gallery, review by Robert G. Edelman, pp. 218,219,

Art in America, advertisement for LPS show, R.H. Love Modern- Chicago, February 1988, p. 45

Art in America, Summer 2023, Barry Schwabsky, Leon Polk Smith’s Color Lines, illustrates; Twelve Circles , 1968, Constellation Up and Away, 1970, Blue Red Spheres, 1955, Black White Repeat with Red, no. 2, 1953, OK Territory, 1943, pp. 58-60

Arts Magazine, June 1980.Article bookmarked Abstraction, Decoration and Collage, Nancy J. Troy; “ the several models of abstraction which obtained in the first and second decades of this century represent not the goal of abstraction per se, but rather abstraction as a means of breaking down the barriers between painting and the environment as a whole.” December, 1981

ARTFORUM, January, 1979, pp. 30, 31

ARTFORUM, reproduction in Nicholas Calas article, December 1983, pp. 48, 49

ARTFORUM, advertisement, Painting and Constructions, Burnett Miller Gallery Gallery, May 15-June 20, 1987

ARTFORUM, advertisement for Smith show at R.H.Love Modern Gallery, Chicago, Ill, February, 1988

Arts, Advertisement for Constellations 1967-1973, January 11-February 24, 1984 Washburn Gallery, New York

Esquire, Esquire Eye, The Artist Framed, Harvey Stein photographs, Walter Steding text, Leon Polk Smith, p.181

LPS statement: “As soon as I finished school, the first thing that I did was to break all the rules that my instructors told me to follow. I started basing most of my work on their don’ts, which appealed to me more than things they said to do. It seemed to me that everything that everybody was doing the dos, and so much of it was bad I found the challenge in the don’ts.”

HORS LIGNE Winter 1993-1994 No. 62, pp. 22-23

22 KUNSTFORUM International Bd. 91, Ocktobwer, November ’87, Interview of Leon Polk Smith by Gislind Nabakowski , pp. 274-278, illustrates Constellation 3 ellipses, 1967 [now titled Constellation Red-Green-Black]

Horizon magazine copies:

  • November 1962
  • January 1963
  • March 1963
  • Spring 1964 – illustrates LPS felt banner, p.63
  • January 1968 – see LPS note, p.20

QUADRUM 12, Georgine Oeri, 1961, illustrates (titles in French, English titles used by Smith follow) Nuage B., 1961 [Cloud B.], Haut Plateau, 1961 [High Plateau], Courbe noire,1960 [Black Curve] 1960, pp.150-151

Saturday Review magazine, Nov.12, 1963, Katherine Kuh, The Fine Arts, , p.69

Town & Country October 1985, The Seen as Art, Nancy Love, Leon Polk Smith reproduced Seven Involvements in One, 1966, p. 252

VOIR le Magazine des Arts, May 1962, Jean Nathan Interview with Leon Polk Smith, illustrates Sunset Caribe, 1983; Oval and circle red black, 1973, pp. 14-15