David Smith Exhibition

David Smith: Cubism

David Smith was an American abstract expressionist well known for his paintings, sculptures and steel figures. David Smith started out as a painter. He was considered the first artist to work with welding metal: “Among the greatest American sculptors of the 20th century, David Smith was the first to work with welded metal” (The Art Story). The majority of his sculptures portray equilibrium and some of them were inspired by his daughters. For instance, Cubi V, 1963 shows balance and was inspired by Smith's daughter, Rebecca who was running in the field with a plate in her hands. In the sculpture we can see the shape of someone, perhaps his daughter Rebecca, who is running with an object on his hand.

David Smith, like any other artist, was influenced by Picasso's art works, Such as his abstract paintings. Therefore, he came out with a variety of paintings. “Smith first influenced were primary painters Picasso was important to him early on” (Whitney). For instance, the Spray enamel on paper paintings are very interesting because Smith would take piece of metal and place them on a piece of paper on the floor and take the spray to paint the piece of metal on the paper and then he would remove the metals leaving their shapes on the paper. What is interesting about Spray enamel painting is that it looks vertical. However, Smith painted it on the floor. Smith created art out of any metal object. “In creating these and other similar drawings, Smith arranged cutout geometric forms on a piece of paper which he sprayed with automotive enamel paint” (Whitney Museum). Smith did not follow the tradition in terms of art while creating Circle III. How so? In Circle III he painted the bigger circle in orange color and the semi-circle in green. The fact that he painted the steel sculpture was unusual in the 1960s. “David Smith use paint to dramatically separate the three element of the circle: the base , the circle, and the horn-like arc on top […] The installation came together to form a multicolor series of concentric circles” (Whitney). The reason he painted some of his sculptures was to get a combination of sculptures and painting, since he started out as a painter.

Spray enamel on paper, 1962-63. What is interesting about this painting is that the image looks vertical although it was painted adjacent to the floor. You actually can see three rectangles as the base holding up the rest of the squares.

Cubi V, 1963. Smith was inspired after he saw his daughter running in the field with a plate in her hands. There are three themes in art: landscape, human figure, and still life. Smith focused more on human figure. Cubi V is one of the 600 sculptures he created.

Circle III, 1962.

Tanktotem VIII, 1960. All of the sculptures in Smith's Tanktotem series incorporate parts from a manufactured boiler tank.