- In full:
- David Roland Smith
- Born:
- March 9, 1906, Decatur, Indiana, U.S.
- Died:
- May 23, 1965, Albany, New York (aged 59)
David Smith
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Who was David Smith?
David Smith (1906-1965) was an American sculptor celebrated as the most original in the post-World War II decades. Smith, who was never formally trained as a sculptor, learned to work with metal at an automobile plant.
His abstract paintings evolved into sculpture through the addition of wood, metal, and found objects. Inspired by Pablo Picasso and Julio GonzĂĄlez, he pioneered welded metal sculpture in America, creating abstract biomorphic forms that reflected the Surrealist influence of spontaneous expression. After a period of stylistic diversity, Smith created pieces in stylistically unified series, and his work became more geometric and monumental, especially with the Albany and Zig series. His final series, Cubi, used burnished stainless steel to emphasize volume and light.
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What kind of art did David Smith create?
David Smith was an American sculptor known for his pioneering welded metal sculpture and large painted geometric forms. His metalwork experience at an automobile plant and studies in painting influenced his move to freestanding sculpture in the 1930s. Inspired by Pablo Picasso and Julio GonzĂĄlez, Smith became the first American artist to make welded metal sculpture, creating abstract biomorphic forms. After World War II, Smith worked in unified series, including the geometric Albany and Zig series, and later the Cubi series, which used burnished stainless steel to create a sense of volume and weightlessness.
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What materials did David Smith use for his sculptures?
David Smith was an American sculptor known for his welded metal sculptures and large geometric forms. He learned metalwork in 1925 while working at an automobile plant and was the first American artist to create welded metal sculpture. Smith's early sculptures incorporated wood, metal strips, and found objects. During World War II, he assembled locomotives and tanks while continuing to sculpt. His later works became more geometric, using paint to emphasize the relationships between planes. In his final series, Cubi, Smith used stainless steel surfaces to create a sense of volume and weightlessness.
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How did David Smith's work change the idea of sculpture?
David Smith transformed the concept of sculpture by using welded metal and creating large, painted geometric shapes. Smith, who was born in the United States, was the most innovative American sculptor following World War II.
Smith was the first American artist to create welded metal sculptures, finding creative freedom in the technique inspired by Pablo Picasso and Julio GonzĂĄlez. His work influenced the brightly colored "primary structures" of Minimal art in the 1960s. Smith's sculptures were rooted in his abstract paintings, which displayed an interest in the interplay between two-dimensional planes, leading him to focus on surface articulation and often disregard traditional three-dimensional form development.
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What are some of David Smith's most famous works?
David Smith (1906-1965) was a pioneering American sculptor known for his welded metal sculptures and massive painted geometric forms. Smith's exposure to the welded metal sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio GonzĂĄlez inspired him to become the first American artist to create welded metal sculpture.
Smith's notable series include the Albany series (begun in 1959) and the Zig series (begun the following year), which showcased more geometric and monumental forms. In his Cubi series (begun in 1963), Smith used cylinders and rectilinear solids, arranged at odd angles, to create a sense of weightlessness.
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How did David Smith influence other artists and modern sculpture?
David Smith was the most original American sculptor after World War II because of his pioneering welded metal sculpture and massive painted geometric forms. Smith's use of industrial welding to construct imposing sculptures from sheet metal, drawing inspiration from Pablo Picasso and the Russian Constructivists, significantly influenced the shift from traditional sculpting methods to construction techniques. His work greatly influenced the brightly coloured "primary structures" of Minimal art during the 1960s. Smith's artistic principles were further adopted and revolutionized by artists like Anthony Caro, who moved towards radical abstraction.
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David Smith (born March 9, 1906, Decatur, Indiana, U.S.âdied May 23, 1965, Albany, New York) was an American sculptor whose pioneering welded metal sculpture and massive painted geometric forms made him the most original American sculptor in the decades after World War II. His work greatly influenced the brightly coloured âprimary structuresâ of Minimal art during the 1960s.
Smith was never trained as a sculptor, but he learned to work with metal in 1925, when he was briefly employed as a riveter at the Studebaker automobile plant in South Bend, Indiana. Dropping out of college after his first year, he moved to New York City and, while working variously as a taxi driver, salesman, and carpenter, studied painting under John Sloan and the Czech abstract painter Jan Matulka.
Smithâs sculpture grew out of his early abstract paintings of urban scenes, which were reminiscent of the work of his friend Stuart Davis. Experimenting with texture, he began to attach bits of wood, metal strips, and found objects to his paintings, until the canvases were reduced to virtual bases supporting sculptural superstructures. Long after he stopped painting, his sculpture continued to betray its pictorial origins: his overriding concern with the interplay of two-dimensional planes and the articulation of their surfaces led Smith to abrade or to paint his sculpture while often ignoring the traditional sculptural problems of developing forms in three-dimensional space.
Smithâs interest in freestanding sculpture dates from the early 1930s, when he first saw illustrations of the welded metal sculpture of Pablo Picasso and another Spanish sculptor, Julio GonzĂĄlez. Following their example, Smith became the first American artist to make welded metal sculpture. He found a creative freedom in this technique that, combined with the liberating influence of the Surrealist doctrine that art springs from the spontaneous expression of the unconscious mind, allowed him soon to produce a large body of abstract biomorphic forms remarkable for their erratic inventiveness, their stylistic diversity, and their high aesthetic quality.
In 1940 Smith moved to Bolton Landing, New York, where he made sculpture during World War II when not assembling locomotives and tanks in a defense plant. For a time after the war, he continued to work in a bewildering profusion of styles, but toward the end of the decade he disciplined his exuberant imagination by making pieces in stylistically unified series. Such series of sculptures were often continued over a period of years concurrently with other series of radically different styles. With the Albany series (begun in 1959) and the Zig series the following year, Smithâs work became more geometric and monumental. In Zigs, his most successful Cubist works, he used paint to emphasize the relationships of planes, but in his Cubi (begun in 1963), his last great series, Smith relied instead on the light of the sculpturesâ outdoor surroundings to bring their burnished stainless-steel surfaces to life. These pieces abandon two-dimensional planes for cylinders and rectilinear solids that achieve a sense of massive volume. Smith joined these cubiform elements at odd and seemingly haphazard angles, in dynamically unstable arrangements that communicate an effect of weightlessness and freedom.