David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy

With Cubes and Anarchy, the first ever thematic exhibition of the heralded 20^th century constructivist avant-gard American sculptor, David Smith (1906-1965), Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) brings together over 100 hard-edged geometric forms, drawings, paintings and photographs that express the artist's middle class and utopian optimism.

Differing from the traditional linear representation of Smith's works and influences, LACMA Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Carol S. Eliel focuses on the constant geometric abstraction present throughout Smith's career.

Often referred to as the three-dimensional counterpart to abstract expressionist painters and preceding minimalism, the exhibit includes the artist's earliest small scale sculptures of the 1930's marked by the European influences of Pablo Picasso and cubism. Displayed from the 1940's are Smith's figuratively based, highly detailed American surrealism works. From the 1950's are Smith's lyrically abstract, expressionist expansiveness. On display are also the artist's final works marking Smith's largest geometric breakthrough of monumental Cubis and Zigs.

Smith's work shows noticeable influences by other artists. Visual comparisons of Smith's The Hero (1951-1952) to Constantin Brancusi's Bird in Space (1925) as well as with Smith's Growing Forms (1939) and Brancusi's Endless Column (1918) are on view.

Inspired by Pablo Picasso's and Julio González's welded iron sculptures is Saw Head (1933).

Likewise, Smith's geometric forms applied to populist ideals, as in Unity of Three Forms (1937), Suspended Cube (1938), Three Planes (1960-61), and Zig IV (1961), were inspired by Russian contructivists such as Vladimir Tatlin and El Lissitzky.

In addition, Smith's geometrical forms (Zig III, 1961 and Bec-Dida Day, 1963) assert a link to Piet Mondrian. 
Bec-Dida Day (1963)’s color and shape correlation also reflects Vasily Kandinsky's influence.

The exhibit offers a fascinating look at David Smith's art, welding skills, and depth of vision. One needs to walk around these beautiful structures to feel the three dimensional relationship between the sculptures' form and space, as well as the legacy that brought David Smith to the forefront of international recognition.

The exhibit runs from April 3, 2011 through July 24, 2011 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Lynda and Stewart Resnick Exhibition Pavilion, located at 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles , CA 90036 . For more information call (323) 857-6000 or visit www.lacma.org

More about David Smith's work can be found at www.davidsmithestate.org