David Smith and the cubi series sculpture - Essay Example

DAVID SMITH AND THE CUBI SERIES SCULPTURE David Smith, beginning off as an artist, emerged to be one of the most influential and imaginative twentieth century American sculptors, in the process bringing American sculpture, a relatively relegated art form, to the fore of American art. He was apparently inspired and influenced by the European modernism in art, and applied the principles of cubism and abstract expressionism in developing one of the most innovative, expressive forms in a series of sculpture titled the Cubi series. The paper attempts to understand the life of the sculptor, David Smith, and his art, with particular emphasis on his sculptural creation, the Cubi series. Introduction Art forms draw significantly from each other in the course of evolution, as artists, inspired and influenced by the experiments and experiences of past and contemporary artists in other art streams, adopt and innovatively apply principles and traditions of extraneous arts in their own streams. David Smith, considered one of the most influential and imaginative twentieth century American sculptors, apparently inspired and influenced by European modernism in paintings, has applied the principles of cubism and abstract expressionism in developing one of the most innovative, expressive forms in a series of sculpture titled the Cubi series. "It may not be possible to reach further as an artist than David Smith did, within and outside himself,"1 wrote art critic Donald Goddard reviewing an exhibition of his works at Gagosian Gallery, New York in 2004. An attempt to know and appreciate the life and development of the artist, who purportedly reached the heights of human artistic expression, and his art, would be valuable and perhaps imperative, and in all likelihood tempting to art enthusiasts and students. David Smith - A Biographical Sketch David Roland Smith was born on March 9, 1906, in Decatur, Indiana; his father Harvey Martin Smith was a telephone engineer and part-time inventor and mother, Golda Stoler Smith, a schoolteacher. His inborn talent in fine arts surfaced during his young age, as he joined for a correspondence course at the Cleveland Art School during his high school years. The family moved to Ohio in 1921. In 1924 Smith attended the Ohio University; in 1925, he left the university to work as an automobile factory welder in an assembly plant, where he learnt the first lessons of welded construction and assembling, which he later vastly applied in his metal sculpture. His academic interests in arts brought him back to college, joining the University of Notre Dame in Indiana in 1926; however, soon Smith moved to Washington D.C and then to New York, to enroll at the Art Students League, where he studied painting with many celebrated artists like Richard Lahey and John Sloan and privately with Jan Matulka.2 Smith married Dorothy Dehner, a young painter at the school, in 1927. Though he worked for sometime at a sports good store and on an oil tanker, Smith returned to New York to pursue his artistic aspirations. New York's cultural life seemed fascinating and promising to the artist; Smith bought a farm in Bolton Landing, near Lake George in upstate New York; the fields, remained his seasonal resort until 1940, when he made it his home, staying there permanently, developing his farm of outdoor metal sculptures.3 David Smith's association with artists John Graham and Jan Matulka introduced him to European modernism; Smith was much influenced by cubism in art, and the welded steel sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzlez, the experience leaving enduring impressions in his artistic perceptions. Smith's fascination with abstract expressionism and constructivism in art fuelled his friendship with modernists of the time including Willem de Kooning, Stuart Davis, Edgar Levy, Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, and Jean Xceron. Smith was also captivated by the jazz and modern dance, the art forms influencing him in unique ways in his creations. 4 Smith's artistic expedition ventured into sculpting in 1931-32, when Smith created his first sculpture, from pieces of wood, coral and other found objects, in the Virgin Islands. The welder in Smith has already known the possibilities of metal as a sculptural medium; by 1933, Smith ventured into metal sculpture, and he set up a studio at the Terminal Iron Works in Brooklyn in 1934, committing himself to mostly to sculpture.5 During the early months of Second World War, Smith and Dehner were traveling in France, England, Greece, and Russia. On his return to New York, the leftist Smith began creating antiwar medallions, the Medals for Dishonor, in contempt of the rise of fascism. Smith's eminence as sculptor received acclaim as he sculpted for the WPA Federal Art Project in 1937, his first solo display of drawings and welded-steel sculpture was held at Marion Willard's East River Gallery in New York in 1938. Though displays of his work continued to be organized in Art Centers, between 1942 and 1944 Smith again worked as a locomotive welder in Schenectady, New York. The period from 1942 to 1945, was a period "inner turmoil and conflict," for Smith as he was pressured by personal and financial difficulties; in 1945 Dehner moved back to New York City by herself, leaving Smith alone in Boltons Landing. 6 Reviewing Smith's sculpture, Interior (1937), in the American Sculpture of Our Time, a group show at Willard and Buchholz Galleries, New York in January 1943, Clement Greenberg wrote in The Nation "If [Smith] is able to maintain the level set in the work he has already done, he has a chance of becoming the greatest of all American Artists." 7 Smith not only maintained his level, his experimentations with construction and forms assumed even greater perfection as exemplified by his later sculptural series. Smith's eminence as an artist and sculptor eventually made him a teacher of arts -- from 1948 to 1950, Smith taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, and at Bennington College and other schools. The award of Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 1950 freed Smith from other jobs, as the scale of Smith's work expanded dramatically during the years. By this time, Smith began the practice of making sustained series of works over many years, ranging from Agricola series (1951-1957); Tanktotem series (1953-1960); and other; the most famous series, being the Cubis (1961-65).8 By the late 1950s, Smith's artistic career reached its pinnacle - the New York Museum of Modern Art started organizing major exhibitions of his work. In 1962, the Italian government invited Smith for the Spoleto festival at Genoa, where Smith executed 27 sculptures. On his return in 1963, Smith continued his execution of the monumental, geometric steel sculptures of Cubi series, as well as other series as Voltri-Bolton. Rosalind Krauss, analyzing his works during the period suggest the dominant influence of four images -- the cannon, the totem, the sacrifice and the reliquary -- in his creations: "The obsessiveness with which he returned to these images again and again, as though to a task he could not finish, suggests that rather than serving as the pretext for his sculpture, they were the provocation."9 In February 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Smith to the National Council on the Arts. Smith's artistic creations and aspirations met its abrupt ending, as an automobile accident near Bennington took his life on May 23, 1965.10 Working on several related series of sculpture at once, Smith 'was at the very top of his game'11 at time of his death. The Art and Sculpture of David Smith As common with any artist, Smith's artistic expressions also originally took their form in paintings, however, Smith was ordained to be a feisty sculptor, despite his ardent painter's eye. While Smith continued to draw and paint seriously, his art emulating the modernist percepts of abstract expressionism, Smith's vocation as a welder and his exposure to constructivism and cubism in the late 1920s and early 1930s, incited his pre-ordained interest in sculpture, as he was captured by the possibilities of the three dimensional art.12 He began combining construction and painting, as his paintings began to assume a three dimensional sculptural character-"the painting developed into raised levels from the canvas. Gradually the canvas became the base and the painting was a sculpture."13 By the 1930s Smith was primarily committed to sculpture, originally creating sculptures from wood, metal, machine parts and other 'found' materials. Steel was his natural choice; steel offered him the choice of fusing nature with art and technology. Goddard observes, "Smith sensed everything around him--the growth and movement of trees, the transformation of light, the flight of birds, the roiling of his own consciousness--and the possibilities of writing it all in steel."14 The narrative content in his later works gave way to more lyrical expressions, as his "reflective" art, set in the fields around his house in Bolton Landing, were made to reflect nature more vividly and sensitively. Sculpture became a part of his world, as he once said, "It's [sculpture] part of my everyday living; it reflects my studio, my house, my trees, the nature of the world I live in."15 The development of David Smith's sculpture - from the early creations of small colorful assemblages of wood, wire and stone, illustrating Smith's affinity for the new communicative choices of construction, found objects and applied color, to his masterly lyrical creations in stainless steel has been exhaustively researched,16 and received widespread acclaim by artists and art-critics in the U.S. and abroad. Yet his Cubi series - the 28 large-scale geometric stainless steel sculptures burnished to a highly reflective surface -- remains his masterpiece, the creations stunningly merging his unique painterly aesthetics with sculptural form and function. The following sections presents a dissertation of Smith's Cubi series sculpture, trying to analyze and appreciate the influences, the creative process, the aesthetics and choices of construction, and the evocative expressions of his sculpture. While an assortment of the works in Cubi series are included in the Appendix, which demonstrate the originality and range of Smith's ideas and vocabulary and his inimitable styles in construction and compositions, a few of the most striking are included in the disseration. The Cubi Series Sculpture The Cubi series epitomize David Smith's fascination and fine, mature adoption of the European modernist movements - cubism, abstract expressionism as well surrealism in sculpture. According to Taplin, no other American sculptor, except for Calder, absorbed the artistic innovations of the European modernists like Picasso, Gonzalez, Boccioni and Arp so quickly.17 Smith's fusion of constructivism and cubism assumed masterly perfection in the Cubi series -- his indeterminate assembly of cubes, cylinders and rectangular tubes presented evocative three-dimensional geometric forms, producing some of his most extraordinary sculptural creations. Much like Picasso's cubism ideals, Smith's Cubi series present a 'search for an architectonic basis in the composition, trying to make an order," 18 despite its characteristic indeterminateness and imbalance. Yet, in these sculptural series Smith seemingly fulfilled "his ambition of creating something that Picasso and [others] hadn't even attempted to achieve: sculpture informed by painting." 19 While these unique assemblies exhibit abstract geometrical imagery and constructivist configuration of space typical of metal sculpture, the steel surfaces burnished with swirly grinding present immensely beautiful natural patterns, as light reflects on the surface, enhancing the three dimensional quality. Smith's paintings have a sculptural character, his sculpture, as Frank O. Hara has remarked, looks at painting and responds in its own fashion. 20 In sculpting he "never required any separation [from painting] except one element of dimension."21 In creating the massive three-dimensional Cubi series sculpture, Smith essentially remained a painter, perhaps extraordinarily so, as the reflective flat surfaces vitally functioning as a canvas reflecting the patterns and shades of the surroundings in inimitable ways. The Cubi Series present architectural structures in the rigid medium of stainless steel, a natural choice to an artist, who worked as a welder in assembly plants. The spatial designs of cubis set against the skies - Cubi XVII, Cubi XXI -- with the geometric forms leaning casually against each other, or even dreamily laid out in space, renders exceptional form and composition producing fascinating, diverse visual designs from different perspectives. Though referring to an other contemporary work by David Smith, Goddard's observation: "With every move one makes around the sculpture, no matter how incremental, the work as a whole and every relationship within it changes, so that it constantly becomes a different figure, still and affectless at times, explosive at others," remains equally applicable to his unique compositions in the Cubi Series. Even as the sculptures in the Cubi series are massive, the dreamy compositions make them look weightless and the shiny and wavy designs on the polished steel surface impart a feeling of lightness. Smith's use of flat and relatively small shapes and surfaces, with in massive structures enables him to have perfect control of the effects on the surface. Set in natural backdrop, each surface unique blends shades of nature with the uneven and wavy lines and patterns, presenting a distinctive picturesque quality to these sculptures. Smith's choice of the material of construction in the outdoor setting, suggests his painterly aesthetics in sculpture: "I like outdoor sculpture and the most practical thing for outdoor sculpture is stainless steel, and I make them and I polish them in such a way that on a dull day, they take on the dull blue, or the color of the sky in the late afternoon sun, the glow, golden like the rays, the colors of nature. And in a particular sense, I have used atmosphere in a reflective way on the surfaces. They are colored by the sky and the surroundings, the green or blue of water. Some are down by the water and some are by the mountains. They reflect the colors. They are designed for outdoors." 22 The Cubi XII is brilliant example of Smith's fascination with fusing art, nature and technology in sculpture, the geometric shapes and burnished surfaces contrasting and interacting with the outdoor landscape in inimitable ways. While the still view of trees and sky in the backdrop and their shades of pale green and blue on the surface render a stillness to the composition, as sunlight plays off at the orthogonal surfaces, the subtle layers of swirly, linear patterns emerge with a lively intensity, lending the subtle dynamic quality to the Cubi. While most of Smith's Cubis are indistinctly figural, a few of them present distinct architectural implications. Jennifer Blessing at the Guggenheim Museum present the highlights of Cubi XXVII23 - a massive Cubi developed by welding precariously positioned rectangles, cubes and cylinders to form a giant structure framing a central opening. The Cubi composition resembles a rudimentary doorway, rising against the sky, and is appositely referred to as "gates," even as Smith called them "arches." By counterbalancing the unsteady forms using precarious joints, Smith is considered to be "emphasizing the potential energy captured through the welding technique." 24 The Cubi XXVII is a perfect execution of Smith's sculptural aspirations of creating "a structure that can face the sun and hold its own against the blaze and the power." 25 Apparently the Cubi series sculpture is essentially an arrangement of shapes, yet, as Goddard suggests it is difficult, perhaps impossible, to avoid the crucial associations and the unusual range of mind and consciousness and emotions they imply. Much like Smith's other contemporary works, a range of Cubis as also present conflicting, though at times augmenting views, of the same object that are suggestive of the conflicting creative impulses of the artist himself. The sexualized cannon image in his later works such as Cubi XXVI and other series such as Zigs and Voltri, are considered reflections of the fears of his own violence and sexuality.26 As Taplin remarks, his sculpture represents the relentless conflicts of "violence countered by affection, a ferocious independence tempered by a desire to communicate, a grinding isolation broken by fits of charming amicability,"27 as his seemginly simple, lyrical compositions suggest evocative associations, when set against nature and reflecting the changing moods of the surrondings. Conclusion David Smith was one of the prominent twentieth century sculptors in America, to quickly and innovatively adapted European modernist percepts as abstract expressionism, cubism and in his art. Smith's Cubi series - the 28 massive geometrical composition created from cubes, rectangles and cylinders in burnished stainless steel - executed between 1961 and 1965, present his masterly adaptation of cubism and painterly aesthetics in sculpture. As Goddard observes, "the connections he made and the structures he devised to hold things together describe the limits of human comprehension, within a universe that is both reflected by and unconcerned with that comprehension." 28 Yet, the highly reflective geometric shapes evolve as unique canvases reflecting the moods and emotions of nature, as his sculpture responds to painting in unique ways; his sculpture striving to show "the wonder of man, that flowing water, rocks, clouds, vegetation, have for the man in peace who glories in existence."29 APPENDIX OTHER PROMINENT CUBI SERIES SCULTPURE BY DAVID SMITH Bibliography 1. Ashton, Dore Picasso on Art, London: Thames & Hudson, 1972 2. Author Unknown, "David Smith Chronology" The Estate Of David Smith. 2004 Available at: http://www.davidsmithestate.org/bio.html Accessed 10/18/05 3. Blessing, Jennifer "David Smith: Collection Highlights", Guggenheim Museum, 2005 Available at: http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_md_146B_2.html Accessed 10/18/05 4. Goddard, Donald. "David Smith: Related Clues" Art Review NewYorkArtWorld 2004 Available at: http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/smith.html Accessed 10/18/05 5. Krauss, Rosalind E. Terminal Iron Works: The Sculpture of David Smith. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1971. 6. McCoy, Garnett. David Smith, London, Allen Lane: Penguin Books, 1973 7. Press Release "David Smith: Painted Steel: The Late Work Of David Smith" (Apr 18 - May 23, 1998) Gagosian Gallery 1998 Available at: http://www.gagosian.com/past/mode=pressrelease&eid=188&gid=5 Accessed 10/18/05 8. Smith, David. David Smith by David Smith. Cleve Gray, (Ed.) New York: Thames and Hudson, 1972. 9. Smith, David "The Question -- what is your hope" 1950 Available at: http://www.davidsmithestate.org/statements.html Accessed 10/18/05 10. Taplin, Robert "David Smith: toward volume" Art in America, (April) 2002 Available at: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_4_90/ai_84669343 Accessed 10/18/05 11. Taplin, Robert "David Smith at Gagosian - New York: New York - Review of Exhibitions" Art in America, December, 1998 Available at: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_12_86/ai_53408974 Accessed 10/18/05 12. Weisberg, Jacob. "The Fields of David Smith: His steel sculptures return to their roots." May 28, 1999 Available at: http://slate.msn.com/id/29461/sidebar/29463/ Accessed 10/18/05 13. Wilkin, Karen. David Smith. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. Sources: Pictures 1. Smith, David Cubi III, 1961 Available at: http://www.moca-la.org/museum/pc_artwork_detail.php&acsnum=89.43&sa=1064 Accessed 10/19/05 2. Smith, David Cubi XII, 1963 Available at: http://hirshhorn.si.edu/education/interactive/geometric.html Accessed 10/19/05 3. Smith, David Cubi XVII, 1963 Available at: http://www.davidsmithestate.org/smith_works/cubi_XVII.html Accessed 10/19/05 4. Smith, David Cubi XX, 1964 Available at: http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/collections/4/work_16.htm Accessed 10/19/05 5. Smith, David Cubi XXI, 1964 Available at: http://www.metmuseum.org/special/David/cubi.r.htm Accessed 10/19/05 6. Smith, David Cubi XXII, 1964 Available at: http://artgallery.yale.edu/pages/collection/popups/pc_modern/details13.html Accessed 10/19/05 7. Smith, David Cubi XXVI, 1965 Available at: http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfoObject=56336+0+none Accessed 10/19/05 8. Smith, David Cubi XXVII, 1965 Available at: http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_work_md_146B_2.html Accessed 10/19/05 9. Smith, David Interior, 1937 Available at: http://www.davidsmithestate.org/bio_files/interior.html Accessed 10/19/05 Read More