Clarice Smith
{{Short description|American painter (1933–2021)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Clarice Smith
| image = Photo of Clarice Smith.jpg
| caption = Smith in 1996
| birth_date = {{birth date|1933|01|16}}
| birth_place = Washington D.C.
| birth_name = Clarice Chasen
| other_names =
| death_date = {{death date and age|2021|12|09|1933|01|16}}
| death_place = Arlington, Virginia
| death_cause =
| nationality =
| education = Corcoran School of the Arts and Design MFA in 1979 from George Washington University
| occupation = Painter
| known_for =
| children = Michelle Smith
David Bruce Smith
Stephen Smith (predeceased)
| spouse = Robert H. Smith
| parents =
| family =
| website =
}}
Clarice Smith (January 16, 1933{{sndash}}December 9, 2021) was an American painter and portraitist whose paintings have appeared in a number of exhibitions in the United States and Europe. With her husband, Robert H. Smith, Clarice Smith engaged in philanthropy, especially at the University of Maryland, where the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center is named for her, and at George Washington University, where the couple endowed the Smith Hall of Art. They also initiated a distinguished lecture series at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.{{Cite web|url=https://americanart.si.edu/videos/clarice-smith-lecture|title=Clarice Smith Distinguished Lecture Series Videos|website=Smithsonian American Art Museum|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-13}}
Education
Born Clarice Chasen to a Jewish family on January 16, 1933 in Washington, D.C.,{{cite news|last=Schudel|first=Matt|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2021/12/16/artist-philanthropist-clarice-smith-dies/|title=Clarice Smith, artist and D.C. philanthropist, dies at 88|date=December 16, 2021|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=April 6, 2023}}{{Cite web|url=https://dcjewishstyle.wordpress.com/2010/09/08/painter-and-philanthropist/|title=Painter and Philanthropist: Clarice Smith's Works to be Shown at Cosmos Club|date=September 8, 2010|publisher=DC Jewish Style|access-date=2019-03-13}} Smith studied art at the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design and the University of Maryland. She received her MFA in 1979 from George Washington University, where she taught as a member of faculty from 1980 to 1987.{{Cite web|url=https://nmwa.org/press-room/press-releases/classic-beauty-blooms-canvas-elements-nature-equines-and-still-lifes|title=Classic Beauty Blooms on Canvas in Elements of Nature: Equines and Still Lifes by Clarice Smith at NMWA {{!}} National Museum of Women in the Arts|website=nmwa.org|language=en|access-date=2017-03-28}}{{Cite web|url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~magazine/archive/2007_fall/docs/alumni_events.html|title=GW Magazine|website=www2.gwu.edu|access-date=2019-03-13}} Smith, who described herself as a "lifelong learner," cited a "Methods and Materials" class at George Washington University, "where she first learned about paints," as the beginning of her career as an artist.{{Cite news|url=http://theclarice.umd.edu/clarice-smith-artist-and-partner|title=Clarice Smith, Artist and Partner {{!}} The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center|work=The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center|access-date=2017-03-28|language=en}} Excerpt from video interview 02:00 to 02:18. In 2012 she received an honorary doctorate from George Washington University, and in 2015 was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Maryland.{{Citation|last=discovergw|title=GW Commencement 2012: Clarice Smith|date=2012-05-21|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lyEhNY4pSU|access-date=2017-03-28}}{{Cite web|url=http://claricesmith.com/about/|title=About {{!}} Clarice Smith|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-03-13}}
Career
Smith worked as a professional painter for forty years, and exhibited in group and solo exhibitions in both the United States and abroad, in the United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Israel.{{Cite web|url=https://wsimag.com/art/6432-clarice-smith-recollections-in-a-life-in-art|title=Clarice Smith. Recollections in a Life in Art|date=2013-12-06|website=Wall Street International|language=en|access-date=2019-03-13}} Among her most notable exhibitions are those at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (2009),{{Cite web|url=http://artdaily.com/news/33747/Classic-Beauty-Blooms-on-Canvas-in-Elements-of-Nature--Equines-and-Still-Lifes-by-Clarice-Smith-at-NMWA#.WNqd3aK1vIU|title=Classic Beauty Blooms on Canvas in Elements of Nature: Equines and Still Lifes by Clarice Smith at NMWA|last=Villarreal|first=Ignacio|website=artdaily.com|language=en|access-date=2017-03-28}} Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (2011),{{Cite web|url=https://vmfa.museum/exhibitions/exhibitions/nature-reined-paintings-clarice-smith/|title=Nature Reined: The Paintings of Clarice Smith|website=vmfa.museum|date=28 October 2013 |language=en-US|access-date=2017-03-28}} and the New York Historical Society (2013).{{Cite web|url=http://artdaily.com/news/67296/-Clarice-Smith--Recollections-of-a-Life-in-Art--on-display-at-the-New-York-Historical-Society#.WNqT4qK1vIV|title="Clarice Smith: Recollections of a Life in Art" on display at the New-York Historical Society|last=Villarreal|first=Ignacio|website=artdaily.com|language=en|access-date=2017-03-28}}{{Cite news|url=http://wsimag.com/art/6432-clarice-smith-recollections-in-a-life-in-art|title=Clarice Smith. Recollections in a Life in Art|date=2013-12-06|work=Wall Street International|access-date=2017-03-28|language=en-US}} In 2016 her work was paired with that of the sculptor Albert Paley for an exhibition at the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/museums/a-painters-unbridled-hand-matches-a-sculptors-experiment-with-twisting-steel/2016/12/08/017d33fc-b7e8-11e6-a677-b608fbb3aaf6_story.html|title=A painter's unbridled hand matches a sculptor's experiment with twisting steel|last=Jenkins|first=Mark|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2019-03-13}} Her painting Big Race (2001) is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.{{Cite web|url=http://americanart.si.edu/collections/search/artwork/?id=71802|title=Big Race by Clarice Smith / American Art|website=americanart.si.edu|access-date=2017-03-28}}
She also published several written works along with her son David Bruce Smith. They include Afternoon Tea with Mom, a collection of her paintings; Three Miles from Providence, historical fiction about Abraham Lincoln; Continuum, a collection of Venetian paintings for the National Museum for Women in the Arts; and Tennessee, a collection of unpublished Tennessee Williams plays.{{Cite web|url=https://trulyamazingwomen.com/the-women/clarice-smith/|title=Fine Artist Clarice Smith « Truly Amazing Women|access-date=2019-11-01}}
Death
Smith died at her home in Arlington, Virginia on December 9, 2021.
References
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Category:American portrait painters
Category:American still life painters
Category:Jewish American painters
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:21st-century American painters
Category:20th-century American women painters
Category:21st-century American women painters
Category:Painters from Washington, D.C.
Category:Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni
Category:University of Maryland, College Park alumni
Category:George Washington University faculty