Tony Smith (sculptor)
| Tony Smith | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Anthony Peter Smith September 23, 1912 South Orange, New Jersey |
| Died | December 26, 1980 (aged 68) |
| Nationality | American |
| Known for | Sculpture, Visual arts |
Tony Smith (September 23, 1912 – December 26, 1980) was an American sculptor, visual artist, architectural designer, and a noted theorist on art. He is often cited as a pioneering figure in American Minimalist sculpture.
Anthony Peter Smith, "Tony," was born in South Orange, New Jersey to a waterworks manufacturing family started by his grandfather and namesake, A. P. Smith. Tony contracted tuberculosis as a youth and his family constructed a one-room prefabricated house in the backyard, in an effort to protect his fragile immune system. He was attended to by a nurse to maintain his health and tutors to keep up with his schoolwork. The medicine he was given came in little boxes which he used to form cardboard constructions and when he could, he visited the waterworks factory to marvel at the machines and fabrication processes. After the TB cleared up, Tony attended Francis Xavier Academy, a Jesuit high school in New York City. In the spring of 1931 he attended Fordham University and then in September of that year enrolled at Georgetown University. He was disillusioned and felt no direction at Georgetown so he returned to New Jersey by in the winter of 1932. Around this time he opened a bookstore in Newark, New Jersey and from 1934-36 worked at the family factory and attended evening courses at the Art Students League of New York, where he studied anatomy with George Bridgeman, drawing and watercolor with George Grosz and painting with Vaclav Vytlacil. In 1937, he moved to Chicago intending to study architecture at the New Bauhaus, where he readily absorbed the interdisciplinary curriculum but ultimately again found himself disillusioned. The following year, Smith began working for Frank Lloyd Wright's Ardmore Project near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he began as a carpenter helper and bricklayer, and eventually was named Clerk-of-the-Works, a position that inspired the young designer to discover his own unique artistic sensibilities.
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