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David Smith
American, 1906-1965 Cubi VI Stainless steel 285 x 75 x 55.5 cm Gift of Meshulam Riklis and Judith Stern-Riklis, New York, to American Friends of the Israel Museum © Estate of David Smith / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY Accession number: B73.0165 |
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The foremost sculptor of the American Abstract Expressionist generation, David Smith began his art studies in New York in the late 1920s at the Art Students League, where he was exposed to Modernist writings, works by such artists as Mondrian and Kandinsky, and Cubism. During the early 1930s Smith moved from making Cubist paintings to collages to reliefs, and, ultimately, to freestanding three-dimensional works. From 1935, he concentrated on sculpture, although he constantly strove to merge painting and sculpture, and create a new art form.
In the 1950s Smith began to work in stainless steel, producing larger and more abstract pieces. The culmination of his work was the "Cubi" series, which he began in 1961. The last in the series, Cubi XXVI, was completed a short time before his untimely death. Smith intended "Cubi," like his other stainless-steel series, to be displayed outdoors, so that the surfaces of the sculptures would change with the changing light. In this sense, they represent the final |
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