Many of her works, with their inky spots, patches of impasto, and curlicue or zigzag strokes, appear to share affinities with ancient writing systems or with
the gestural bravura of classic Abstract Expressionism.
«Hassel Smith was an eminent abstract expressionist painter who made pictures with vigorously drawn lines and
gestural marks that activated a picture's total surface with a wild improvisational
bravura,» said art historian Peter Selz.