(Decatur, Indiana 1906–1965 Bennington, Vermont)
Untitled, around 1955, steel, h: c. 55 cm incl. base (base 1 x 11.1 x 10.2 cm)

Provenance:
The estate of the artist
Marlborough Gallery, New York
Galerie Thomas, Munich, 1980 - acquired from the above
Private collection, Bavaria, 1980 - acquired from the above

Literature:
Rosalind E. Krauss: Sculpture of David Smith: A catalogue raisonné, New York, London 1977, no. 306 - Krauss dated the work 1953
Christoph Lyon (Ed), David Smith - Sculpture, A catalogue raisonné 1932–1965, vol. III, New Haven/London 2021, p. 32 (ill.), p. 33. no. 402

„Sculpture is as free as the mind; as complex as life..“
David Smith, 1951, in: “Abstract Expressionism“, 1990, p. 159

“The material called iron or steel I hold in high respect. What it can do in arriving at a form economically, no other material can do... What associations it possesses are those of this century: power, structure, movement, progress, suspension, destruction, brutality.”
David Smith, 1951, in: “Abstract Expressionism“, 1990, p. 41

David Smith was one of the most acclaimed sculptors of his generation as he helped to revolutionise American sculp ture by taking the principles of Cubism, Surrealism and Ab stract Expressionism to the three-dimensional medium of sculpture. Using a welder's torch, he applied them to iron and steel.

Smith, who in his early years had helped out as a welder in an auto repair shop, began making welded iron sculptures in the mid-1930s. The intensive examination of the sculptu ral work of Pablo Picasso and the works of Julio González strengthened him in this way of working. He mostly used material found by chance, like tool and ma chine parts. Later he ordered certain individual parts from catalogues that were of interest to him in terms of form.

“They can begin with any idea. They can begin with a found object, they can begin with no object, they can begin some times even when I’m sweeping the floor and I stumble and kick a few parts that happen to throw into an alignment that sets me off in thinking and sets off a vision of how it would finish if it all had that kind of accidental beauty to it. I want to be like a poet, in a sense.” (David Smith in an interview with author and art critic Da vid Sylvester, 1960, cited in: David Smith sculpture, A Cata logue Raisonné, 1932-1965, 2021, vol I, p.75)

For Smith, metal strewn or kicked about on the shop floor might provide an intentionally unplanned starting point; na tural forms seen and found in the landscape of Adirondocks, such as birds, fish, trees, and bones became abstract ele ments of a visual language.

The artist did not follow a strict, linear production pattern, nor did he feel constrained by laws of logic or tradition. Instead, he made sculpture the way he dreamt, believing in contrast to his more methodical European counter parts – that any idea that comes to mind is valid. This made his work more eclectic and unpredictable, rougher and less restrained.

The sculpture described here was created at a time when Smith was beginning to work on some of his most important series, the Agricola, the Tanktotems and the Sentinels - mostly standing figures, whose cur ved individual parts strive upwards defying gravity (in exciting contrast to their often heavy materials) and frequently inspire figurative associations in the viewer.

One of the most distinguishing characteristics of his achieve ment in those years was his ability to move deftly between figuration and abstraction, a trait he shared with his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, with both of whom he engaged in an inten se artistic exchange about compositional abilities. Although many avant-garde artists and critics rejected the figurative as academic and retardataire, Smith regarded it as central, and used it to refine his techniques and be part of the grand tradition of art making. For the same reason, he was ada mant about drawing every day, whether from photographs or from live models. His profound engagement with the figure was also a catalyst for both abstract reflections and the strong figural references contained in his works. These preparatory drawings closely resemble a finished sculpture, or parts of it. One result of this way of working is the over coming of the centredness of his sculptural works, which are usually no longer created around a "core", but unfold - like the present work - freely in space.

See Carmen Giménez, David Smith A Centennial, Guggenheim Museum, New York 2006, p.70ff.

“I will not change an error if it feels right, for the error is more human than perfection. I do not seek answers. I haven't named this work nor thought where it would go.

I haven't thought what it is for, except that it is made to be seen. I've made it because it comes closer to saying who I am than any other method I can use. This work is my identity.”
David Smith 1950s, “Tradition and Identity“ (1959)