Q Life Magazine Q Magazine (US) May 2016 | Page 37
Transcending Borders: Art in Qatar and the U.S. |
| Tony Smith, Smoke 1967 (fabricated 2010) Doha Exhibition & Convention Center.
Tony Smith
Tony Smith was one of the most influential artists of
the 20th century. A sculptor, painter, and architect who
apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright, Smith reached
critical acclaim for his large-scale geometric sculptures.
He exhibited this new form of sculpture for the first
time in 1964. In 1967—after making the cover of TIME
magazine as “Master of the Monumentalists”—he
became an overnight sensation around the world.
In 1998, a major retrospective at the Museum of
Modern Art introduced Smith’s daring work to a new
generation of viewers. Smith died of a heart attack in
1980, at the age of 68.
Smith designed Smoke in 1967. A replica of the
two-tiered aluminum sculpture now enchants passers-
by in its new outdoor home at the Doha Convention
and Exhibition Center. The 24-foot high sculpture—a
combination of geometric components, including five
tetrahedrons and forty-five extended octahedrons—
reflects the artist’s fascination with the morphology of
organic shapes such as crystals and honeycombs.
37