David Smith

One of my favorite sculptors is David Smith. The Guggenheim in New York is running a centennial exhibition of his work until May. I cannot wait to see it.

I was first introduced to Smith by my postdoctoral mentor, David Baltimore. It was 1981; I had just moved back to New York and was attending a meeting in Washington, DC. Baltimore was at the same meeting, and when it was over, he asked me if I wanted to see the David Smith exhibition at the Hirschorn. I went, and I was hooked. He told me that he always wanted to buy a David Smith for the Whitehead, the research institute he had started in Cambridge, MA.

After seeing that exhibition, wherever I went, I looked for Smith sculptures. Fortunately there are a few at Storm King, just upstate in NY. This should be a great exhibition at the Guggenheim.

Some Smith quotations:

"Art is made from dreams, and visions, and things not known, and least of all from things that can be said. It comes from the inside of who you are when you face yourself. It is an inner declaration of purpose; it is a factor which determines artist identity."

"If you ask why I make sculpture, I must answer that it is my way of life, my balance, and my justification for being."

Above is a photo of Cubi XXVII, which Smith made from brushed aluminum in 1965. His works in this style are among my favorite.