David Smith

Research Paper about David Smith

David Smith (1906-1965) is widely heralded the greatest American sculptor of the twentieth century. Smith has generally been presented as the three-dimensional counterparty to the Abstract Expressionist painters and/ or as a draftsman in space. "Cubes and Anarchy" places these acknowledged masterpieces in context with his earlier works, revealing Smith as a sculptor whose identification with the working class motivated him to adopt the geometric forms of the constructivist avant-garde from the very first years of his career in the 1930s until his death in 1965.

David Smith cut geometric shapes out of steel plate and welded them into totemic shapes. He made steel boxes, stacked them in lyrical ways, and buffed swirls into their surfaces. He played with gravity, balance, and even words—well, letters. When asked, in 1961, whether the sculptures should in fact be seen as personages, Smith replied: "Even [an artist's] vision has to be made up of the forms and the world that he knows...There is no such thing as the truly abstract; man always has to work from his life." David Sylvester said in 1961. Cubi V Cubi V, 1963. Stainless steel, 96 × 73 × 22 in. (243.8 × 185.4 × 55.9 cm) is one of the twenty-eight Cubi sculptures made by Smith. In Cubi V, the "cubes" are arranged in such a way as to suggest a weightless equilibrium rather than a labored construction. "The Cubis have compositional effects of balance, thrust, turning, even lyricism, all characteristics completely unassociable with the qualities of the basic cube components. It is not only that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts but that the inter- connecting, synergetic aspect of the work means that its authority derives from seeing these elements work together compositionally - indeed sometimes almost magically." from E. A. Carmean. Cubi V clearly falls into the figurative category, the rectangular supporting form and the extended horizontal element suggesting limbs attached to the central cubic "torso".