From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith
Cincinnati Museum of Art
953 Eden Park Drive
Cincinnati, OH
Through May 18

From the Village to Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith consists of twenty-four pieces of silver and gold jewelry created by the Brooklyn-reared modernist jeweler Arthur Smith (1917–1982). Smith trained at Cooper Union and opened his first shop on Cornelia Street in Greenwich Village in 1946. Art was an active supporter of the black and gay rights movement and early black modern dance groups. He included these themes in his works.

Charles Russell, Smith’s life partner and heir donated the majority of the jewelry in the show. This collection was organized by the Brooklyn Museum, where it was originally shown in 2008. Smith’s Jewelry will be complemented by pieces by his contemporaries and archival material from the artist’s estate, such as sketches, the original shop sign, Smith’s tools, and period photographs of models wearing the jewelry. On view are thirty pieces of modernist jewelry from the permanent collection by such artists as Elsa Freund, Claire Falkenstein, Ed Weiner, and Frank Rebajes. From the Village to Vogue creates a dialogue about the thin line between craft and high art.