PHOENIX (PR Newswire) – The newest original exhibition from the Heard Museum, “Leon Polk Smith: Hiding in Plain Sight,” will explore the influence of American Indian creative expression on the work of iconic artist Leon Polk Smith from Friday, Feb. 5, through Monday, May 31.

Smith is a celebrated modernist painter and leader of the Hard-edge Movement, an art form of the late 1950s and ’60s that emphasizes geometric forms and bright colors.

This is the largest exhibition of Smith’s paintings in more than 25 years and features 37 original works that span seven decades. The exhibition pairs Smith’s paintings and works on paper with examples of American Indian beadwork, ribbon applique and painted hides from his native Oklahoma.

The Heard Museum is located at 2301 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix, Arizona.

A fully illustrated catalog with new scholarship is available, made possible through the generous support of the Carl & Marilynn Thoma Art Foundation.

“Leon Polk Smith: Hiding in Plain Sight” is made possible by lead support from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Leon Polk Smith Foundation.

Since its founding in 1929, the Heard Museum, a private nonprofit organization, has grown in size and stature to become recognized internationally for the quality of its collections, world-class exhibitions, educational programming and festivals. Dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art, the Heard successfully presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitions that showcase the beauty and vitality of traditional and contemporary art. The Heard Museum is supported, in part, by the generosity of Heard Museum members and donors, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the City of Phoenix Office of Arts and Culture.

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