New York Public Library Receives 250 Kiki Smith Prints From Her Sister

The New York Public Library now owns some 250 prints by the American artist Kiki Smith. The works were a gift from her sister, the artist Seton Smith, and the gift was reported by ARTnews on 22 October 2026.

A print is an image made by pressing ink from a prepared plate or block onto paper. One artist can make many impressions from the same design, which is why prints are often collected in large groups.

The library already had a head start. Before this gift, its Prints and Spencer Collections, the department that looks after prints and rare books, held 30 other Kiki Smith prints and 12 of her artist's books. An artist's book is a book made by an artist as a work in its own right, rather than a text printed for someone else.

The new gift spans roughly three decades. It includes works dating from the 1990s to the present, so visitors will be able to trace how the artist's printmaking has developed over that period.

Seton Smith has also made a promise for the future. She has pledged to give the library every new print she receives by her sister. That means the collection is set to keep growing as more work is made and given.

The prints are available to the public, not only to specialists. Anyone with a library card can spend time with them as a researcher at the library's main building on 42nd Street in Manhattan. They are not kept behind glass, so people can study them in person.

For students, scholars and curious visitors alike, that is the practical result. A gift of this size means a single library holds a large body of one artist's prints in one place, and the public can ask to see them. Gifts like this one are how many research collections grow, one donation at a time.