Ismael Smith

ISMAEL SMITH MARÍ (Barcelona, 1886 – New York, 1972).
"The Lovers."
Bronze sculpture.
Number 3 of 9.
Signed and numbered.
Measurements: 25 x 27 x 26 cm.

By the time he created this sculpture, Ismael Smith’s style had already evolved into an expressionism rooted in social criticism and imbued with a unique personality. A pair of vagrants, their bodies almost fused into one, united by the cold and their fragility, lean forward with their torsos and necks to (as the title makes clear) look through the glass of a storefront window. We imagine a pastel shop or perhaps a restaurant with diners enjoying a hearty meal. They are wrapped in loose, damp clothing. Their large hands underscore their humble origins and the hard life of those who work the land. The expressiveness is concentrated in every part of the body—in their gestures and postures, even in the way the folds of their clothing are rendered—but above all in their faces, with sunken cheeks and sad eyes, their heads protected by berets.

A sculptor, draftsman, and engraver, he was one of the first artists considered part of the Novecent movement by Eugenio D’Ors. Trained at the Escuela de La Lonja in Barcelona and the Academia Baixas, he studied under the sculptors Benlliure, Querol, Vallmitjana, and Llimona. He won an award in a competition for emerging artists held by the Ateneo Barcelonés in 1903, and in 1906 he exhibited at the Parés Gallery. He won second and third prizes at the 5th International Exhibition of Fine Arts in Barcelona in 1907, and second prize at the 6th exhibition in 1911. In 1910, he traveled to Paris on a scholarship from the Barcelona City Council. Between 1913 and 1914, he studied at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, after which he embarked on a series of trips to England and the United States, holding numerous exhibitions. He settled permanently in New York in 1918, where he collaborated with the Hispanic Society. In 2005, the Palau Foundation dedicated a retrospective to him. The plates for his engravings are preserved in the Graphic Arts Department of the Library of Catalonia and at the National Engraving Collection in Madrid. In addition, many of his prints are housed at the British Museum in London, and his work is also represented at the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, MoMA in New York, the National Print Room in Madrid, and the Library of Catalonia.