The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Modern Cuff Bracelet

c. 1948
maker

Arthur George (Art) Smith,

(American, 1917–1982)
America
Brass
10.2 x 7.3 x 7.3 cm (4 x 2 7/8 x 2 7/8 in.)
Gift of Lee and Lili Siegelson 2020.91
© The Estate of Art Smith
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

An openly gay African American artist, Art Smith became popular with artists and musicians working in Greenwich Village where he maintained a studio and shop.

Description

Art Smith was one of America’s leading modernist jewelers. From the 1940s to the 1970s he created bold, dramatic pieces out of brass, copper, and silver from his Greenwich Village studio in New York City. The Modern Cuff Bracelet is a careful study in contrasts—light and dark, positive and negative—blending modernist motifs with a traditional African form.
  • ?-2020
    Lee Siegelson, New York, NY, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2020-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • null
    cf. Foley, Mark, et. al. Structure and Ornament: American Modernist Jewelry 1940–1960. New York: Fifty/50, 1984 Cover
    cf. Harwood, Barry. From the Village to the Vogue: The Modernist Jewelry of Art Smith. New York: The Brooklyn Museum, 2008, exhibition catalogue p. 15
  • {{cite web|title=Modern Cuff Bracelet|url=false|author=Arthur George (Art) Smith,|year=c. 1948|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2020.91