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David Smith

Sprays

January 17–February 23, 2008
980 Madison Avenue, New York

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Works Exhibited

David Smith, Untitled, 1964 Spray enamel on canvas, 19 ¼ × 16 ¼ inches (48.9 × 41.3 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1964

Spray enamel on canvas, 19 ¼ × 16 ¼ inches (48.9 × 41.3 cm)

David Smith, 5 ∆∑ 3-17-63, 1963 Spray enamel on paper, 17 ½ × 12 ¾ inches (44.5 × 32.4 cm)

David Smith, 5 ∆∑ 3-17-63, 1963

Spray enamel on paper, 17 ½ × 12 ¾ inches (44.5 × 32.4 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1964 Spray enamel on canvas, 17 ½ × 14 inches (44.5 × 35.6 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1964

Spray enamel on canvas, 17 ½ × 14 inches (44.5 × 35.6 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1959 Spray enamel on canvas, 98 ⅛ × 51 inches (249.2 × 129.5 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1959

Spray enamel on canvas, 98 ⅛ × 51 inches (249.2 × 129.5 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1962 Spray enamel on paper, 17 ½ × 11 ½ inches (44.4 × 29.2 cm)

David Smith, Untitled, 1962

Spray enamel on paper, 17 ½ × 11 ½ inches (44.4 × 29.2 cm)

About

American sculptor David Smith produced a distinctive body of work using commercial aerosol paint almost immediately upon its invention in the mid-nineteen-fifties. Wielding the spray can with the assurance of a welder's torch and the immediacy of a paintbrush, Smith combined the sensations of sculpting, painting, and drawing. In these works on paper and canvas the artist freely explored the interplay of mass and weightless form.

David Smith: Sprays, curated by Candida Smith, the artist's daughter, and Peter Stevens, Director of the David Smith Estate, is the first in depth exhibition of the artist's Sprays in nearly thirty years. The exhibition includes more than seventy works on paper and canvas dating from 1958 to 1964, many of which have not been exhibited before and three related sculptures. A fully illustrated catalogue with an introduction by Candida Smith and an essay by Peter Stevens accompanies this exhibition.

Smith first exhibited the large Sprays on canvas as a group in 1959. He often spoke of his ambition to break down the boundaries between the media of drawing, painting and sculpture. Comprising monumental paintings, narrow vertical canvases, and intimate works on both canvas and paper, the Sprays evoke objects and atmospheres, realities and illusions, presences and absences.

The caveman from Altamira to Rhodesia had reproduced true reality by the eidetic image. This image even today defies word explanation as does any art.
—David Smith, 1952

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