David Smith: Form in Color: Cat. Hauser & Wirth

David Smith (1906–1965) is widely considered one of the foremost artists of the 20th century. For the artist, there was no conceptual boundary between sculpture, painting, and drawing. The resulting works derive much of their power from this radically open-ended approach. Whereas the physical qualities of Smith’s welded-steel sculptures transmit a strong industrial presence, their surfaces carry gestural and tactile imprints, often of hand-applied paint. The impact of his work results from his insistence that sculpture have the same visual impact as painting and drawing, and that drawing and painting have the same spatial weight as sculpture. Focusing on 20 works from the late 1950s until the ­artist’s untimely and sudden death in 1965, »David Smith: Form in Color« charts the development of these stunning works with ­extensive illustrations and historic images culled from the archives of The Estate of David Smith. David Smith, born in 1906 in Decatur, Indiana, studied at the Art Students League in New York. In the early 1930s he began to focus on sculpture, creating welded constructions by using found objects and forged metal. Smith moved permanently to Bolton Landing, in upstate New York, in 1940, where he created a factory-like studio stocked with industrial tools and materials. From the late 1950s he filled the rolling hills that surrounded his studio with monumental works. He died in a car accident near Bennington, Vermont, in 1965. Smith paved the way for such artists as John Chamberlain, Mark di Suvero, Donald Judd, and Richard Serra by moving the site of sculpture’s construction from the 19th-century confines of the artist’s atelier and the fine-art foundry, into the expansive, industrial context of the 20th century.

Exhibition:
Hauser & Wirth Zurich, 12/6–18/9/2016

David Smith (1906–1965) was am American sculptor, who was one of the foremost artists in the 20th century and the sculptor most closely linked to the Abstract Expressionist movement. He is known for his use of industrial methods and materials, and the integration of open space into sculpture. Spanning pure abstraction and using color as material, he has inspired the follower generations of sculptors since his death. His exhibition list starts starts 1938 with a show at East River Gallery New York followed by numerous shows, amongst others 1940 St Paul Gallery and School of Art, 1941 Walker Art Center Minneapolis, 1946 Alabama Polytechnic Institute Auburn AL, 1948 Hite Art Institute University of Louisville KY, 1952 Walker Art Center Minneapolis, 1957 The Museum of Modern Art New York, 1961 MIT Cambridge, 1964 Institute of Contemporary Art University of Pennsylvania, 1965 Los Angeles County Museum, 1966 Tate Gallery London, 1969 Guggenheim Museum New York, 1976 National galeri Berlin, 1979 Whitney Museum of American Art New York, 1980 Serpentin Gallery London, 1982 National Gallery of Art Washington DC, 1985 St Louis Art Museum, 1991 The Museum of Modern Art New York, 1998 Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, 2000 The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, 2006 Guggenheim Museum New York, 2011 Whitney Museum of American Art New York. The David Smith Estate is represented by Hauser & Wirth.