Aside from being a rock and roll icon, Patti Smith is also a visual artist who gained recognition on the New York art scene in the 1960s and 1970s. She moved to New York City in 1967 where she met artist Robert Mapplethorpe and writers Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs. Passionate about poetry, particularly the work and figure of Arthur Rimbaud, in the 1970s, Smith began focusing on painting, writing and theatre arts. Over the course of the years, she began dedicating herself to music, melding rock and roll with poetic performance art. In 1975, she released her punk rock album Horses, produced by ex-Velvet Underground member John Cale and it has remained a cult classic. During the 1980s and 1990s, Smith continued to pursue her artistic activities alongside her music career. Her oeuvre consisted of a mix of drawing, photography and writing around themes of rebellion and spirituality. She was also writing, producing and supporting human rights and environmental issues. Smith also co-founded the non-profit organisation Pathway to Paris with her daughter.
Patti Smith (b. 1946, Chicago, USA) lives and works in New York, USA. She was most recently the subject of Camera Solo, a survey of her photographs organised by the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, USA (2011), which travelled to Detroit Institute of Arts, USA (2012) and the Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada (2013). In 2008, Smith was the subject of Patti Smith Land 250 at the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporaine, Paris, and Written Portrait - Patti Smith at Artium Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain. Strange Messenger: The Work of Patti Smith, a three hundred-work retrospective, was organized by The Andy Warhol Museum in 2002 and travelled to numerous venues including the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and the Museum Boijsman Van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Her work has also been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Eki, Kyoto; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Triennale di Milano, Milan; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels and the Pompidou Center in Paris.
Just Kids, a memoir of Smith's remarkable relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe during the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies, won her the 2010 National Book Award in the nonfiction category. Her 1975 album Horses, established her as one of most original and important musical artists of her generation and was followed by ten releases, including Radio Ethiopia; Easter; Dream of Life; Gone Again, Trampin', and Banga, her latest. She continues to perform throughout the world and in 2007 was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In July of 2005, she was presented with the prestigious insignia of Commander of the Order of the Arts and Letters, an esteemed French cultural honor. In May 2011, Smith won the Polar Music Prize, Sweden's most prestigious music award.
