Howard Smith, an African American artist who passed away in 2021 at age 92, achieved remarkable success and recognition in Finland despite remaining virtually unknown in his home country. Born in New Jersey and educated at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, Smith found himself caught between two worlds in the United States - feeling marginalized by the mainstream white art establishment while also feeling out of place within the Black art community.

Smith's journey to Finland began in 1962 when a friend invited him to participate in Young America Presents, a cultural festival in Helsinki that was publicly sponsored by the United States but secretly funded by the CIA. In post-Cold War Finland, where he was one of the only Black artists, Smith discovered an audience and a sense of belonging that had eluded him in America. This marked the beginning of a five-decade career that would establish him as a celebrated figure in Finnish art and design.

Over the next 50 years, Smith produced an impressive and diverse body of work spanning paintings, sculptures, textiles, ceramics, and mixed-media assemblages. His talent and contributions were formally recognized by the Finnish government when he won the Finnish State Design Prize in 2001. Two years later, in 2003, Smith received the ultimate honor when Finland awarded him an artist's pension, recognizing him as a national treasure.

The Palm Springs Art Museum is now presenting "The Art and Design of Howard Smith," the first retrospective of Smith's work in his home country. The exhibition is particularly intriguing because it challenges traditional distinctions between art, design, and decorative arts. Visitors encounter striking tensions between Smith's minimal black and white works, his almost wall-sized floral textiles, and smaller, blockier pieces that echo the work of second-wave Color Field artists like Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Helen Frankenthaler.

The overall presentation feels like an unexpected fusion of influences, combining elements reminiscent of Joan Miró, Adolph Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, and William Baziotes. While Smith's surfaces may be less energetic and technically refined than those masters, they possess a distinctive playfulness that sets them apart. This playful quality, combined with his technical skill, enables Smith to create enormous textiles that transcend mere design to enter the realm of fine art.

Among the most memorable pieces are works that bridge the seemingly contradictory worlds of design and political commentary. His "Untitled" from 1985 exemplifies this approach, featuring large graphic patterns and expressive forms characteristic of Finnish design that morph into serpentine facial details. The long, slender necks and elongated heads evoke African sculptural traditions like Dan Masks or the Clayman Fang Head, representing a profound instance of simultaneous engagement and resistance within an overwhelmingly white Scandinavian art world.

While Smith thrived as a designer in Finland, he aspired to create art of political consequence. His mixed-media collage "America?" demonstrates this ambition, featuring a silhouetted head in profile against a whitewashed background with four newspaper clippings positioned above and to the left of the figure's nose. The only fully legible phrases are "Number 1" and "The Kremlin Mood." Smith's inscription on the back contextualizes the piece, noting it was created "at and after the Montgomery Riots," likely referencing either the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march or the assault on the Freedom Riders in 1961.

However, not all of Smith's political works achieve their intended impact. "America?" falls short of its ambitious goal as a statement on American contradictions, with its title being too precise while the figure lacks precision, and the text being simultaneously too obvious and too elusive. More successful is "Black Angel" from 1970, a beautiful screen print that masterfully combines Smith's signature Scandinavian design sensibility with the Japanese concept of "ma" - the harmonious use of negative space.

"Black Angel" showcases Smith's ability to balance multiple influences while maintaining his unique voice. The proportionality of the angel, with its block bottom and winged torso, suggests both groundedness and the possibility of flight. A thin red vertical line, slightly diagonal, connects the angel's internal energy with a red crown, dome, or heaven above. The stark presentation of the angel conveys power and strength while simultaneously engaging with American Abstract Expressionism, Scandinavian Design, and Japanese minimalism.

Smith's astonishingly broad body of work challenges viewers to reconsider the often arbitrary distinctions between various levels of aesthetic production. His career demonstrates how an artist can find creative freedom and recognition by crossing cultural and geographical boundaries, even when that recognition doesn't extend to their country of origin.

The exhibition, co-organized by the Espoo Museum of Modern Art in Finland and curated by Steven Wolf, continues at the Palm Springs Art Museum through February 23, 2026. Accompanied by a generous bilingual exhibition catalog, this retrospective may finally alter Smith's reputation in the United States, potentially introducing American audiences to an artist who achieved remarkable success abroad while remaining overlooked at home.