Although best known for her revolutionary contributions to the worlds of music and poetry, Patti Smith is also an accomplished visual artist whose drawings have been exhibited in museums and galleries throughout the world. Smith first gained critical attention in the early 1970s as a pioneering poet and performer who burst onto the downtown New York City scene which centred around St. Mark’s Church. After performing at the fledgling underground music club, CBGBs, Smith was the first of a new breed of musicians to be signed to a major record label. Her critically acclaimed 1975 debut album, Horses, featuring reworked classic rock covers, original songs and stream-of-consciousness poetry, is considered one of the most influential rock albums of all time.

Simultaneous to her musical notoriety, Patti Smith also expanded her visual art career. Her drawings, inspired by artists such as William Blake and Antonin Artaud, and rendered in fine lines and delicate color, represent a powerful fusion of image and text. Her latest series of large-scale drawings (the largest measuring 48 inches by 30 inches) are inspired by the damaged World Trade Center towers after the September 11 terrorist attack. Using text from the Gospel of Peace of the Essences, the Koran and other sources, Smith has reconstructed the building’s remains in an intricate web of poetic language.

Image: Self-Portrait, 1969
Graphite, coloured pencil and press-type on paper
29 x 23 inches
Collection of Robert Miller and Betsy Wittenborn Miller;
Courtesy of The Robert Miller Gallery, New York