Founded in 1960 by art dealer Allan Stone (1932–2006), the New York gallery known today as Allan Stone Projects has been admired for over half a century. Celebrated for its eclectic approach and early advocacy of pivotal artists of the 20th century, Allan Stone Gallery was a leading authority on Abstract Expressionism, the New York dealer for Wayne Thiebaud for over forty years, and showed the works of Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Arshile Gorky, Joseph Cornell, John Graham and John Chamberlain. Stone also promoted the work of a younger generation of artists that were in conversation with other artists in his collection, working in the mediums of assemblage, collage and new modes of abstraction. In addition to modern masterworks and contemporary art, Allan Stone also collected and exhibited international folk art, Americana and important decorative arts and industrial design.
Born in Dexter, Missouri, Don Smith attended the University of Missouri in Columbia, where he received two degrees in painting. In 1956 he was awarded a Delta Phi Delta National Honorary Art Award, and in 1957 a University Fellowship. Smith was a visiting Independent Artist at Santa Reparata Stamperia per Grafica in Florence, Italy in 1973. He has also been a Visiting Artist and Lecturer at Harvard University, Yale University Summer School for Music and Visual Art, Brown University, Artist Union, Brooklyn College, Rhode Island School of Design, and Wheelock College, among others.
Since 1960, Smith’s paintings have been exhibited at galleries and museums throughout the Unites States, including the St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri, Providence Art Club, Rhode Island, Rhode Island School of Design Museum, the Newport Art Museum, Wheeler and Iselin Galleries, Rhode Island, and Bingham Gallery, University of Missouri, among others. The artist’s work is represented in over fifty public and private collections, including the Rhode Island School of Design; Rhode Island College, the Newport Art Museum, American Broadcasting Company, New York and the Spiva Art Center, Michigan.
