NEW YORK, DECEMBER 2002 – Mitchell-Innes & Nash is pleased to present an exhibition of rarely-seen paintings and drawings by American artist Tony Smith (1912-1980). Tony Smith: Louisenberg will be on view from January 22 through March 1, 2003. The exhibition will include 12 paintings from the Louisenberg series, as well as 15 drawings and related works. This is the first exhibition to focus exclusively on the artist’s Louisenberg series. Included in the show will be several paintings that have not been seen publicly in New York since the 1998 Tony Smith retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. The works in the exhibition are drawn from a critical period in Smith’s career when the artist was living in Germany between 1953 and 1955. It was during this period that Smith focused primarily on painting and drawing. The Louisenberg series was named by the artist after a German geological site near Bayreuth. The paintings are based on an abstract grid composed of circles, some of which are self-contained while others are fused into "peanut-shaped" groups of two or more. In 1953 Smith wrote in his notebook, "The grid, the module, is the basis of architectural order and freedom [as it]...unifies what is similar and emphasizes what is dissimilar." The modular approach evident in the Louisenberg works reflects Smith's architectural ideas and prefigures the sculptural methods that he used during the 1960s and throughout the rest of his career. The Louisenberg paintings demonstrate Smith's clear thought process with regard to both sculptural and architectural space. A fully-illustrated catalogue with an essay by Robert Storr, formerly the Senior Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art and currently a Professor of Modern Art at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts, will accompany the exhibition. Listing Information Gallery hours are 10:00am to 5:00pm, Tuesday through Saturday. An opening reception will take place at Mitchell-Innes & Nash on Wednesday, January 22, from 6 to 8 pm. To preview the exhibition or for further information, please visit the gallery website at www.miandn.com or contact Leta Grzan at the gallery at (212) 744-7400. Mitchell-Innes & Nash and Matthew Marks Gallery co-represent the estate of Tony Smith. For press information or to request images, please contact: Stacy Bolton tel: (212) 721-5350 fax: (212) 721-0780 email: sbstul@aol.com