Pamela Colman Smith - Life and Work: Pratt Institute Libraries, Brooklyn Campus - Exhibition curated by Colleen Lynch & Melissa Staiger - Softcover
Synopsis
Pamela Colman Smith - Life and Work
Exhibition at Pratt Institute Libraries, Brooklyn Campus
Curated by Colleen Lynch & Melissa Staiger
PAMELA COLMAN SMITH was born into an illustrious family successful in the fields of business, politics, acting, writing, painting, and publishing. This may explain why she found herself at ease in the company of some of the most renowned artists, writers, and actors of the early 20th century, people she called friends. Smith was an artist with diverse interests and talents – she created paintings, drawings, commercial illustrations, set and costume designs, performed plays in miniature theaters of her own making, and wrote books accompanied by her illustrations. She was also an accomplished and entertaining storyteller, whether she was relating Jamaican or Irish folk-tales, or narratives she’d made up, often accompanied by songs or the recitation of poems. Born in London in 1878 to American parents, Smith spent time in New York and Jamaica, before attending Pratt Institute in 1893, six years after it was founded. It is natural to assume she spent time in this library, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany, a friend of her uncle, Samuel Colman, a highly regarded landscape painter. Perhaps it was he who shared his love of travel and the artwork of other cultures, especially Japanese and Chinese prints, which were so influential at the time, having led to a revolution in depicting space and form in Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, as well as subsequent movements of the Modernist period. It’s hard to classify Smith’s work; she was a singular artist whose style seemed formed at a young age. Her art can be understood in relation to the Symbolist movement, and the art of the fin de siècle with its focus on strange and exotic subject matter, and a unique and personal manner of expression. Yet her work reflects a profound interest in folk culture, the unseen world of fairies and the unconscious, the transformative and ritualistic nature of the theater, and the evocative and enchanting power of performance. Described as charming and childlike, she had an intuitive understanding of spirituality, both ancient and Christian, enabling her to create images for the most influential tarot deck of the modern era. Despite her early success, Smith struggled financially even as she worked on a number of artistic fronts, creating images for posters, calendars, and books, opening a shop in London, selling paintings and prints, and illustrating over twenty books. Unwilling or unable to evolve with the tastes of the times as abstraction, Expressionism and Art Deco came to the fore, Smith retreated to Cornwall where she purchased a home, and became a devout Catholic. She died in 1951 impoverished and in obscurity, although hundreds of articles exist about her work, which is in the collection of museums and institutions. Recently, her work is coming to light, and the deck she helped create has been renamed to credit her – the Rider-Waite-Smith, or Smith-Waite deck. -Colleen Lynch
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