Leon Polk Smith (American, 1906–1996)
Homage to Victory Boogie Woogie #1
1946
Oil on canvas
52 x 48 in. (132.08 x 121.92 cm)
DMA League Purchase Fund, 2000.391
© Leon Polk Smith Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Born in Indian Territory in what is now Oklahoma, Leon Polk Smith was trained in New York and France. In the 1930s, he came to know the work of Constantin Brancusi, Jean Arp, and Piet Mondrian. His own works adopted geometric abstraction and a nonobjective vocabulary. Smith was not particularly interested in Mondrian’s theories but responded to the visual impact of his grid and the sense of extension beyond the edge of the canvas.

In fact, Polk Smith never met Mondrian; nonetheless, in 1946 he painted several works in tribute to him, beginning with this work, Homage to Victory Boogie Woogie #1. It is interesting that Smith chose an unfinished Mondrian and one that was begun in New York as the point of departure for his homage. His own work is not confined by any strict rules concerning color and line; rather the floating color planes imply a response to the urban landscape, a dizzying bird’s-eye view, perhaps, from the height of a skyscraper.