Inspired by surrealism, biomorphicism, and primitivism, Art Smith's jewelry is dynamic in its size and form. Although sometimes massive in scale, his jewelry remains lightweight and wearable. Art Smith wrote in the 1969 catalog of his one man exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Craft: “A piece of jewelry is in a sense an object that is not complete in itself. Jewelry is a ‘what is it?' until you relate it to the body. The body is a component in design just as air and space are.  Like line, form, and color, the body is a material to work with.  It is one of the basic inspirations in creating form.”  

Trained at Cooper Union, Art Smith, an African American, opened his first shop on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village in 1946. One of the leading modernist jewelers of the mid-twentieth century, Smith was also an active supporter of black and gay civil rights and an avid jazz enthusiast. He also designed jewelry for many black dance companies and as Barry Harwood, Curator of Decorative Arts at the Brooklyn Museum comments,  “These commissions encouraged him to design on a grander scale than he might otherwise  have done, and the theatricality of many of his larger pieces may well reflect this experience.”

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Half and Half Neckpiece, c. 1950's. Brass