Stories Untold: Howard Smith–Rediscovering A Lost Black Modernist

Join us for a Modernism Week lecture exploring the fascinating life and work of Howard Smith, a pioneering black artist who rose to prominence in Finland and bridged Nordic and American design.

Howard Smith (1928–2021) was a black artist from New Jersey who emigrated to Finland at the height of the cold war as an unwitting asset of the CIA. He then rose to prominence there for his artwork, textiles, and ceramics, which were produced by some of Scandinavia’s biggest design firms during the heyday of post-war Modernism. He is the only black artist to have been part of the rich design conversation between the Nordic countries and the US, and one of the few black artists of his generation to collaborate with industry successfully. Yet, because he worked primarily in Finland, he is almost entirely unknown in the United States.

Independent curator Steven Wolf will introduce a new book on Smith published by Palm Springs Art Museum, and preview Smith’s first-ever American retrospective at the museum, which opens in May. For the artist, who passed away in 2021, it will be a bittersweet homecoming.

Smith spent eight years in Southern California during the 70s and the 80s, working through issues of blackness and representation in the waning years of the Black Arts Movement. However, despite solo exhibitions at UCLA, Scripps College, and the Museum of African American Art, he remained an outsider in Los Angeles, a Finnish expatriate living on the margins. 

The exhibition and catalog tell the story of Smith’s roundabout journey through art history and explore his uniquely fluid body of work: he made art in almost every medium you can think of and passed effortlessly across the rigid boundaries that separate art and design and fine art and commercial art. Smith’s story is of a singular artist contending with the grand historical forces of his time: racism, Modernism, cold-war ideology, and the African diaspora. A book signing follows the presentation.

The Palm Springs Art Museum, in collaboration with the Espoo Museum of Modern Art, presents The Art and Design of Howard Smith, on view from May 10, 2025, to March 2, 2026, marking the first U.S. exhibition of Smith's work since the 1980s. 

Presented in partnership with Modernism Week

Modernism Week’s signature festival will run February 13-23, 2025, in Palm Springs, celebrating midcentury modern architecture, art, interior and landscape design, and vintage culture.

Underwriting for Stories Untold and complimentary admission generously provided by Room & Board.