A graduate of Boston Museum School, Fannie Hillsmith went on to have a long and successful career developing a cubistic approach to her imagery. Fannie Hillsmith held her first exhibition in 1943, in New York at Jimmy Ernst's Norlyst Gallery. Her work was included in Sidney Janis' book, Abstract and Surrealist Art in America, published in 1944. In 1947 she was invited to teach at legendary Black Mountain College by famed artist Joseph Albers. After two years she returned to New York to become a member of Stanley William Hayter's Intaglio workshop, Atelier 17. She worked alongside noted artists such as Yves Tanguy, Miro, and Jacques Lipschitz. Hillsmith displayed her work in three shows at Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century Gallery in Manhattan. She also exhibited at a series of exhibitions at the Peridot Gallery and the Charles Egan Gallery during the 1950s and 1960s. Hillsmith’s works are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington D.C., and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among others.