Hassel Smith
Hassel Smith | |
|---|---|
Hassel Smith in his Sebastopol, Northern California studio, about 1964
(Photo: Bob Kalbaugh) | |
| Born | Hassell Wendell Smith Jr. 24 April 1915 Sturgis, Michigan, United States |
| Died | 2 January 2007 (aged 91) Wiltshire, England |
| Alma mater | California School of Fine Arts Northwestern University |
| Movement | Abstract expressionism, Figurative painting |
| Spouse(s) | June Myers (m. 1942–1958, her death), Donna Raffety Harrington (m. 1959–2007, his death) |
| Children | 2 sons, including Bruce Smith, and 2 stepsons |
Hassel Smith (24 April 1915 – 2 January 2007) was an American artist and teacher. He is considered to have been one of the USA's foremost West Coast artists, emerging in the decade after World War II as an innovative, potent, witty and often challenging exponent of Abstract Expressionism. He was a "generous and gregarious" teacher of great influence at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco and subsequently at the University of California and in later years at the Royal West of England Academy Art Schools in Bristol, England. His work was exhibited widely, particularly in California, and he is represented in prominent museums and found in private collections around the world. A strongly left-leaning iconoclast, well-known for a confrontational nature and as a drinker, he was at the same time loving, caring and shy. Art critics revered him as a "West Coast underground legend".