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David Smith 1906 - 1965
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| Cubi XVIII, 1964 |
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I do not work with a conscious and specific conviction about a piece of sculpture. It is always open to change and new association. It should be a celebration, one of surprise, not one rehearsed. The sculpture work is a statement of my identity. It is a part of my work stream, related to my past works, the three or four in process, and the work yet to come. In a sense it is never finished. Only the essence is stated, the key presented to the beholder for further travel. My belief in this direction is better stated by Picasso who once said, "A picture is not thought out and settled beforehand. While it is being done, it changes as one's thoughts change. And when it is finished it still goes on changing, according to the state of mind of whoever is looking at it.
A picture lives a life like a living creature, undergoing the changes imposed on us by our own life from day to day. This is natural, as the picture lives only through the man who is looking at it." There is no conceptual difference between painting and sculpture. Both Picasso and Matisse are sculptors of great origins. The position of creating does not change for them just because the medium changes.(1935)
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| Australia - 1951 |
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| Hudson River Landscape -1951 |
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I do not today recognize the lines drawn between painting and sculpture aesthetically. Practically, the law of gravity is involved, but the sculptor is no longer limited to marble, the monolithic concept, and classic fragments. His conception is as free as that of the painter. His wealth of response is as great as his draftsmanship. Plastically he is more related to pagan cultures with directives from Cubism and Constructivism. Modern tools and techniques grant the expression of complete self-identity from origin of idea to material finish. His work can show who he is, what he stands for, with all the fluency he desires, for every step and stroke is his own. The stream of time and the flow of art make it plain that no matter what the sculptor's declaration or individual vision, he cannot conceive outside his time. His art conception takes place in dialectic order. The flow of art, the time of man still places him within his own period, out of which he cannot fly, and within which all other men exist. For no object he has seen, no fantasy he envisions, no world he knows is outside that of other men. No man has seen what another has not, or lacks the components and power to assemble. It is impossible to produce an unperceivable work. I believe only artists truly understand art, because art is best understood by following the visionary path of the creator who produces it. |
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