Howard Smith

Untitled

Circa 1970s

Screenprint on paper

33 7/8 x 47 7/8

Signed lower right

Ex-collection the architect Richard Peters, longtime chair of the UC Berkeley Architecture department and a founding architect of Sea Ranch.

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Howard Smith (1928-2021) was an African American artist and craftsman who worked in painting, textiles, sculpture, ceramics and printmaking. He spent much of his career in Finland where he took refuge from the racism of post war America. He made art and designed ceramics there, most notably for Arabia, and was embraced by the small but fervent art community. His work is just now being recognized in America.

Smith began his art studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1960. He made his first trip to Finland that same year as a member of the Young America Presents group and decided to remain there. The trip was designed to compete with a Soviet Youth Festival, and it is rumored to have had CIA backing. Even though Smith had the freedom to emigrate, because of its timing, his action feels like a cold war defection.

Smith had his first private exhibition in Helsinki in 1963, produced many interior designs, and spent a short time as an assistant to the legendary designer Kaj Franck at the Institute of Applied Arts in Helsinki. He exhibited widely in Finland in the 1960’s and early 1970’s, and became well known for textiles he designed for Vallila Interiors. In the 1970s and 1980s, he came to California, exhibited at UCLA, the Museum of African American Art, Los Angeles, Scripps college Gallery and elsewhere. On his return to Finland, Smith became a visiting artist at the Arabia ceramics factory in Helsinki, and designed for them from 1986-1995. In 1988 he and his wife, ceramic artist Erna Aaltonen, formed the Arteos Studio, a collaborative ceramic/art project. In this later period, he exhibited frequently in galleries and museums around the country.