This book is published to accompany a major retrospective exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in the summer of 1998, which is the first comprehensive showing of Tony Smith's work as an architect, painter, and sculptor.

The essays include Robert Storr's analysis and assessment of Smith's life and work in all mediums, in which he discusses the artist's relationship to the leading Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s, his association with the Minimalist sculptors of the 1960s, and Smith's unique place in the history of American modernist art. John Keenen explores Smith's work as an architect of both built and unbuilt projects.

Joan Pachner's two texts survey Smith's paintings and drawings and his monumental sculptural forms.

Three plate sections reproduce more than 190 works: Smith's architectural designs; his varied drawings and paintings; and his sculptural models and completed sculptures. An illustrated chronology tells the story of the artist's life, and a section of writings, interviews, and letters documents Smith's own thoughts as well as the recollections of family and friends. A selected bibliography and an exhibition history complete the book.