"New Piece #10," 1975-1979 Painted bristol board Unsigned, titled to underside 5" H x 10" W x 10" D Provenance: Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY The Blake Byrne Collection, purchased from the above on May 8, 1990 Notes: Considered the father of American Minimalist sculpture, Smith spent his early adolescence sequestered in a one-room structure behind his parents' house recovering from tuberculosis. His illness and the associated solitude were formative influences on his eventual artistic career. In particular, the cardboard boxes that contained his medications became some of his earliest building materials, shaping the development of his sculptural practice. After completing his schooling, Smith joined the Frank Lloyd Wright team of architects, eventually rising to Chief-of-the-Works. Interestingly, in the 1940s, Tennessee Williams was a witness to his marriage. Other luminaries like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Jackson Pollock were also among Smith's closest friends. Working in their orbit influenced both Smith's minimalist compositions and three-dimensional works. In 1998 when the Museum of Modern Art held a retrospective of Smith's career in New York, the show was entitled "Tony Smith: Architect, Painter, Sculptor," as a testament to his facility and artistic authority across media.