Leon Polk Smith

Leon Polk Smith (1906–1996) was an American painter. His geometrically oriented abstract paintings were influenced by Piet Mondrian and he is a founder of the Hard-edge school. His best-known paintings constitute maximally shortened forms, characterized by just two colors upon a canvas meeting in a rapidly delineated edge, often on an unframed canvas of odd shape. His work is represented in many museums in the United States, Europe, and South America. Thanks to a generous bequest from the artist, the Brooklyn Museum has 27 of his paintings on permanent display.