Cubist painter, printmaker, assemblagist and collagist Fannie Hillsmith was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1911 of an old New England family. Her extensive and varied art educational experiences include the Boston Museum School of Fine Arts (her grandfather, Frank Hill Smith, was one of its founders) from 1930 to 1934. S he studied in New York City at the Art Students League on scholarslhip in 1934 and 1935 with John Sloan, Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Alexander Brook and William Zorach.

But it was through avant-garde work exhibited at the Gallery of Living Art, and artist Vaclav Vytlacil, also teaching at the League, that she first encountered modernist ideas, and was influenced by Paul Klee. Ten years later, she worked at printma...