David Smith (1906-1965)

Named after the town north of Albany, New York, where he bought his materials, David Smith’s Menand series comprises eight sculptures of thickly cut, lacquer and acid-treated steel, with a surface that gleams with a patina reminiscent of antique bronze. The Menand series is characterized primarily by the impressive solidity and mass and of the works. Menand IV is particularly interesting because it is all about opposition. The piece highlights the contrast between straight and curved line as well as positive and negative space, but even as Smith explores the idea of absence and contrast the work still retains the sense of solidity essential to the series. As we see the circle motif—the perfect utopian shape Smith studied in his sixteen seminal sculpture series—we are also faced with two semi-circular cutaways, one with a square form wedging the void. It seems important to note the interplay between the perfect, complete, and fully realized circle form and the broken half circle that is suggested by the protruding curved shape. These segmented and complete circles are interwoven with imperfect squares, creating a myriad of intricate visual relationships. This work signifies a crucial step in the development of ideas that lead Smith to more fully explore cubic volume and two-tiered compositions. Menand IV represents the artist at his most objective.
Inspired by the idea of collage and the continuous overlap of forms, Smith insisted that sculpture could similarly be composed of various existing elements. Evidence of this influence can be seen in the way he juxtaposed figurative motifs and often combined found objects into his sculptures. Additionally, it informed the large-scale geometric abstract constructions of his later work. Here, the sturdy forms are arranged in terms of angled planes and contoured surfaces playing against each other. Discussing his drawing-like conception of sculpture and refusal of monolithic form, or “bulk shape,” Smith has stated, “The line contour with its variations and its comment on mass space is more acute than bulk shape. In vision the overlay of shapes seen through each other not only permits each shape to retain its individual intent but in juxtaposition highly multiplies the associations of the new and more complex unity” (D. Smith quoted in The New Sculpture: A Symposium, New York, 1952, p. 6). One of his most significant formal innovations was the notion of doing away with the idea of a “core” in sculpture. As if he were painting in space, the forms his steel structures take on mimic the movement, gestures, and brushstrokes of the Abstract Expressionists. The compact, solid Menand IV studies the fabricated illusion of brief stasis in a world riddled with relentlessly fluctuating geometries. The play of intersecting horizontal, vertical, curved and straight elements and a scale that seems to almost contain and compress creates a sense of drama and the expressive quality that characterizes Smith’s oeuvre at large.