DAVID LOEFFLER SMITH
RECENT WORK
August 11-September 19, 2010

Crowell's Fine Art is honored to present the first solo exhibition, in recent years, of work by David Loeffler Smith. Loeffler Smiths paintings challenge the viewer to see with new eyes, to set aside preconceived notions of what it is to express a mood visually or to articulate an object in paint. Loeffler Smiths paintings instead invite the viewer to soften their focus, relax their mind and settle in for a journey with an amazing storyteller.  

Like music set in paint, Loeffler Smith uses his characteristically full palette of swirling colors to depict mythological figures, elements of landscape, and still life.  Within the borders of these small (oil on paper mounted to) canvases, the artist creates such balanced movement with relatively short strokes that the viewer is swept up in dreamlike moments with each new work.

For many years, (1962 - 1988) Loeffler Smith headed the painting department of the Swain School of Deign in New Bedford, becoming a teacher and mentor of great influence, not unlike his own teacher, Hans Hofmann.  Now in his late maturity, Smith's culminate work is richly intoned, complex without extraneous elements, and accessibly abstract.  He has earned the title of master and an artist of exceptional vision.    David has exhibited throughout his career in New York and Cape Cod. Loeffler Smith is the patriarch of the Swain School painters and an accomplished artist. Loeffler Smith's masterful use of color combined with his distinctive brushwork produce images that invite the viewer to explore.

Catalog available - Please contact Gallery Director for details

ARTIST BIO

David Loeffler Smith is a student of Stefan Hirsh and Hans Hofmann. He graduated from Bard College and Cranbrook Academy.  Loeffler Smith has been a visiting critic at the N.Y. Studio School, Queens College, Brooklyn College, the Vermont Studio School, Maryland Art Institute, the Parsons School of Design, and the International School of Art in Todi, Italy. David has written for American Artist, Antiques, Arts,, and the English periodical, Art and Artists. Loeffler Smith's exhibition history includes one-person shows at the First Street Gallery and M-13 in New York City;  the Cherrystone Gallery in Wellfleet, Mass., and retrospectives of his painting at the former Crapo Gallery of the Swain School of Design, and with the sponsorship of the Massachusetts Cultural Council at the Nemasket Gallery in Fairhaven.

The New Bedford Art Museum will present a career retrospective of Loeffler Smiths work from February 9th 2011 - May 28th 2011

David Loeffler Smith arrived at Swain School of Design in New Bedford from New York in 1962 after accepting the position of Director. Some have referred to this as one of the most transforming moments in the school's history. With Loeffler Smiths arrival came some change in faculty and, as a result, the emphasis of the institution changed. David brought in new faculty members such as George Rayapell, Sigmund Abeles, Melvin Zabarsky, Scattergood-Moore and Ron Kowalke.  Until 1962 the Swain School had been primarily a graphic design school. Under Loeffler Smiths leadership Swain developed into a Fine Art School which maintained a strong Design program.

Loeffler Smith organized exhibitions in New Bedford of work by a virtual WHO'S WHO in AMERICAN representational painting, with many of the artists also serving as guest lecturers and giving critiques to the students. Under the guidance of David Loeffler Smith and as a direct result of his influence, the Swain School of Design provided deeper roots to the already rich tradition of art in the city of New Bedford. Swain developed a generation of painters who reached beyond the familiar fare of regional landscape painters. Because of the experiences and training they received, these painters viewed themselves as part of a larger movement in the art world. This shift in perspective put New Bedford on the map in terms of the contemporary art movements of its time.