“My concept of an artist is a revolt against the well-worn beauties in the form of a statue. Rather I would prefer my assemblages to be the savage idols of basic patterns, the veiled directives, subconscious associations, the image recall of orders more true than the object itself, resulting in vision, in aura, rather than object reality.”
A test.mes nt to the innovative and unparalleled genius of one of the greatest American sculptors of the Twentieth Century, David Smith’s Structure 38 is dynamic and compelling in form. Best known for his large, geometric sculptures formed from welded steel, Smith was a sculptor of the Abstract Expressionist movement—counted among his friends were fellow artists including Adolph Gottlieb, Milton Avery, and Jackson Pollock. After attending the Art Students League in New York and working on the New York Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, Smith moved to Bolton Landing upstate with his wife, Dorothy Dehner. His surroundings were integral to his artistic practice, and Smith would eventually arrange his sculptures in the fields around his home; the environment informed both the production of the artworks and the subsequent reception and viewing of them. Smith laid elements of the sculptures on the floor, eventually welding them together before standing the work upright.
Right: David Smith welding March Sentinel (1961), Bolton Landing, New York. 1961. Photo by Dan Budnik. Art © The Estate of David Smith.
Smith created sculptures entirely from scratch, never using molds or casts, meaning every work he created is unique. Throughout his career as an artist, Smith expanded the concept of sculpture and redefined its relationship with space. Structure 38 belongs to his series of ‘Sentinels,’ which were coherent neither in material nor form, yet they continue his quest to translate humanity into material; this was a series that he would continue to add to for several years. Executed in his chosen medium of steel, Structure 38 generates new perspectives from every angle, an exquisite example from Smith’s monumental oeuvre.
Works by David Smith in Esteemed Museum collects ions
