Price Database
20 January 2025
Artists
Auctions
Artnet Auctions
Global Auction Houses
Galleries
Events
News
Price Database
Use the Artnet Price Database
Market Alerts
Artnet Analytics
Hidden
Buy
Browse Artists
Artnet Auctions
Browse Galleries
Global Auction Houses
Events & Exhibitions
Speak With a Specialist
Art Financing
How to Buy
Sell
Sell With Us
Become a Gallery Partner
Become an Auction Partner
Receive a Valuation
How to Sell
Search
Hidden
Washburn Gallery
New York
Home
Artworks
Artists
Exhibitions
Art Fairs
David Smith
(
American
, 1906–1965)
David Smith
Untitled (Bathers),
1934
Price on Request
Biography
Timeline
Exhibitions
Timeline
1906
Born in Decatur, Indiana; father is telephone technician-executive and inventor; mother is school teacher
1921
Smith family moves to Paulding, Ohio
1924 - 1925
Attends Ohio University in Athens for one year to study art; transfers to Notre Dame University, Southbend, Indiana; works summer of 1925 at Studebaker Company’s factory in South Bend
1926 - 1927
Assigned by Studebaker Company to New York City; meets Dorothy Dehner, an art student who lives in his apartment building; Marries Dehner in 1927; at the suggestion of Dehner, he attends the Art Students League and studies painting with John Sloan
1928 - 1929
Studies with Czech artist Jan Matulka; Matulka introduces Smith to works of Kandinsky, Mondrian, the Russian Constructivists, and the Cubists, especially Pablo Picasso
1929
Smiths spend time at Lake George in Bolton Landing, New York, at the house of Thomas and Weber Furlong, friends from the Art Students League; Dorothy Dehner’s inheritance allows Smiths to purchase an eighty-six acre farm in Bolton Landing; Smiths meet artist John Graham via the Furlongs and Graham introduces Smith to sculptural works of Picasso and Julio Gonzalez, who were working in iron
1931 - 1932
Smiths visit the Virgin Islands and stay through June 1932; makes abstract drawings and paintings; produces first sculptures out of coral; Smiths return to New York and David begins to use steel for his sculptures
1933
Welds sculpture in a foundry in Brooklyn, New York, called Terminal Iron Works, which becomes his adopted make-shift “studio” for several years
1934
Through John Graham Smith meets Frank Crowninshield, the editor of
Vanity Fair
, and Smith is commissioned to make bases for Crowninshield’s African sculpture collection; with John Graham’s introduction, Smith now part of New York City circle of artists Milton Avery, Arshile Gorky, Stuart Davis, Adolph Gottlieb and Jean Xceron
1935
Smiths travels to Europe for several months, visiting London, Paris, Greece, Soviet Union
1938
Prominent New York dealer Marian Willard offers Smith first solo exhibition at her East River Gallery; Willard represents Smith for next eighteen years
1940
Electricity becomes available in Bolton Landing, prompting Smiths to leave New York City and live full-time at their Bolton Landing farm; the farm becomes known as 'Terminal Iron Works'
1942 - 1944
Works at the American Locomotive Company in Schenectady, New York welding tanks; artistic productivity declines due to shortage of materials because of war, however continues to make drawings
1944
Starts again to make more sculptures at Bolton Landing; exhibits frequently
1950 - 1951
Awarded Guggenheim Foundation fellowship two years in a row; continues to produce drawings, which become more calligraphic and flowing due to his interest in Asian art
1950
Smith and Dorothy Dehner separate (divorce finalized in 1952) and he begins to work furiously on his sculptures
1953
Marries Jean Freas; couple has two daughters, Candida and Rebecca
1958
Begins 'spray' paintings (places scraps of metal and other materials on a sheet of paper and sprays the objects with paint or enamel, resulting in an overall design of an opaque background and 'empty' space where objects once were)
1961
Marriage to Jean Freas ends
1962
Invited to partake in prestigious Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds and produces an amazing twenty-seven sculptures in thirty days
1965
Appointed by President Lyndon Johnson to the National Council on the Arts; dies May 23rd in a tragic truck accident near Bennington, Vermont
View More
Exhibitions
2009
Marble, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
Institut Valenciá d'Art Modern (IVAM), Valencia, Spain
The Third Mind: American Artists Contemplate Asia, 1960-1989, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Innovations in the Third Dimension: Sculpture of Our Time, Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut, USA
The Thaw Collection of Master Drawings: Acquisitions Since 2002, The Morgan Library and Museum, New York, USA
Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, USA
Russell Bowman Art Advisory, Chicago, USA
Washburn Gallery, New York, USA
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, De Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, The Jewish Museum, New York, USA
The 1930s: The Making of 'The New Man',National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada
Collecting for Chicago: Prints, Drawings, and Patronage; Five Families Build Collections of Works on Paper for the Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Sand: Memory, Meaning and Metaphor, The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY, USA
Modernist Sculpture: The Teresa and Alvin S. Lane Collection, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, USA
Abstract Expressionism -- A World Elsewhere, Haunch of Venison, New York
Untitled (Vicarious): Photographing the Constructed Object, Gagosian Gallery, New York
In Pursuit of the Masters: Stories from the Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA
1945-1949: Repartir à zero, comme si la peinture n'avait jamais existé, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France
Working Surface -- Drawings, Paintings, Sculptures 1932-1962, Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, Switzerland
2008
Sprays, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
For What You Are About to Receive, Gagosian Gallery, Moscow, Russia
1937: Perfektion und Zerstörung [1937: Perfection and Destruction], Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Art Basel Miami, Miami, USA
Abstract Expressionist Drawings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Don’t Look,Contemporary Drawings from an Alumna’s Collection (Martina Yamin, Class of 1958), Davis Museum and Cultural Center, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA
The Luther W. Brady Collection at the Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Picker Art Gallery, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York, USA
Art for Yale: Collecting for a New Century. Celebrating the 175th Anniversary of the Yale University Art Gallery and the Centennial of Paul Mellon's Birth, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Nineteen Going on Twenty: Recent Acquisitions from the Collection of The Contemporary Museum, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, USA
Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
2007
Landscape: Form and Thought, Waqas Wajahat in association with Ingrao Gallery, New York, USA
2006
A Centennial. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Personage, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
Seeing David Smith: Photographs by Dan Budnik, Knoedler & Company, New York, USA
Sprays, American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, Germany
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - Fifty Years of American Art“, Grimaldi Forum Monaco, with Otto Hübner as curator for the Abstract Expressionism
Archival to Contemporary: Six Decades of the Sculptors Guild, Hillwood Art Museum, Long Island University, Brookville, New York, USA
Toward a New American Cubism, Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York, USA
New York New York: Fifty Years of Art, Architecture, Film, Music, and Video, The Grimaldi Forum, Monte Carlo, Monaco
Coming of Age: American Art, 1950s to 1950s, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, USA
The Picasso Influence in Pollock, Rothko and Smith, Washburn Gallery, New York, USA
Surrealism: Then and Now, Paul Kasmin Gallery & Edelman Arts, Inc., New York, USA
2005 - 2006
Ecole de New York, MAMAC Nice, France
2005
Drawing + Sculpting, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas, USA
Paintings and Drawings 1955-1958, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
David Smith/Alexander Calder: Large Scale Works, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
Paint on Metal: Modern and Contemporary Explorations and Discoveries, Tucson Museum of Art, USA
Surrealism USA, National Academy of Design, New York, USA
Black, Thomas McCormick Gallery, Chicago, USA
Works on Paper, Danese Gallery, New York, USA
Salute to the 130th Anniversary of the Art Students League of New York, Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York, USA
Continuum: Celebrating the 130th Anniversary of the Arts Students League of New York, ACA Galleries, New York, USA
École de New York: Expressionisme abstrait américaine, oeuvres sur papier [New York School: American Abstract Expressionism, Works on Paper], Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain, Nice, France
2004 - 2005
Action Painting-Arte Americana 1940-1970, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena, Modena, Peggy Guggenheim Collection Venedig in cooperation with american contemporary art GALLERY
Life Understood, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, MI, USA
Reuniting an Era: Abstract Expressionists of the 1950s, Rockford Art Museum, Rockford, IL, USA
Forging New Visions: Teaching the Visual Arts at Sarah Lawrence College, Sarah Lawrence College, Monika A. and Charles A. Heimbold Jr. Visual Arts Center, Bronxville, New York, USA
Bare Clay: Ceramic Nudes in 20th-Century Art, Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Gagosian Gallery, London, UK
Sculpture Monumentale Américaine [Monumental American Sculpture], Donjon de Vez, France
Gagosian Gallery, London, UK
Dibujante. Entre Eros y Tánatos [David Smith: Draftsman. Between Eros and Thanatos], IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Centro Julio González, Spain
2004
Related Clues: Drawings, Paintings and Sculpture 1931-1964, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
2003
20th Century Sculpture, Acquavella Gallery, New York, USA
El Expresionismo Abstracto Americano en las Colecciones Españolas [American Abstract Expressionist Works in Spanish Collections], Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain
Black/White, Danese Gallery, New York
Dessins de David Smith: un choix d'Alain Kirili [Drawings by David Smith; Selected by Alain Kirili], École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Chapelle des Petits-Augins, Paris, France
A Selection from the Estate: David Smith -- Works on Paper 1952-1960, American Contemporary Art Gallery, Munich, Germany
2002
Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
2001
Ink Drawings from 1957, Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Jackson Pollock and David Smith: Paintings and Sculptures from the 1930s and the 1940s, Washburn Gallery, New York, USA
Crossroads of American sculpture: David Smith, George Rickey, John Chamberlain, Robert Indiana, William T. Wiley, Bruce Nauman, Indianapolis Museum of Art, USA
Voici, cent ans d'art contemporain, Societe des expositions du palais des beaux-arts de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium
2000
Two into Three Dimensions, Douglas F. Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, Portland, OR, USA
David Smith on the Roof, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
The Last Nudes, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA
1999
Paintings, Sculptures and Medals, Tel Aviv Museum of Art,
The Fields of David Smith, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY, USA
1998
The Fields of David Smith, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY, USA
Photographs 1931-1965, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, USA
Painted Steel: The Late Works of David Smith, Gagosian, New York, USA
La sculpture moderne au Jardin des Tuileries, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication, Paris, France
Stop Action, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA (cat.)
1997
The Fields of David Smith, Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY, USA
Replacing the Shower of Sparks with the Spray of Paint, Sprays and Drawings, Hill Gallery, Birmingham, MI, USA
Medals for Dishonor, Columbus Museum of Art, OH, USA
1996
IVAM (Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno), Centro Julio González, Spain
1995
The Inspiration of Music, Washburn Gallery, New York, USA
To and From the Figure, Knoedler Gallery, New York, USA
David Smith in Italy, Prada MilanoArte, Milan, Italy
This Work Is My Identity, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
1994
Sezon Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Medals for Dishonor, 1937-1940, Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, USA
1993
Picasso and the Age of Iron, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
1992
Knoedler & Company, New York, USA
1991
Medals For Dishonor, 1937-1940, Imperial War Museum, London, UK
Art of the Forties, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Washburn Gallery, New York, USA
The Fourth Australian Sculpture Triennial, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Bulleen, Victoria, Australia
1990
Margo Leavin Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Nudes: Drawings and Paintings from 1927-1964, Knoedler & Company, New York, USA
1989
Human Concern/Personal Torment. The Grotesque in American Art Revisited, Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York
1988
From the Southern Cross: A View of World Art c.1940-88, The Australian Biennale, Art Gallery of New South, Sydney, Australia
Akira Ikeda Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Drawings of the Fifties, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London, UK
1987
The Prints, Pace Prints, New York, USA (cat.)
Paintings from the 1930's, Washburn Gallery, New York, USA (cat.)
David Smith, Die reifen Jahre, 1951-1965: Skulpturen und Zeichnungen [David Smith, the Mature Years, 1951-1965: Sculpture and Drawings], Galerie Hans Strelow, Düsseldorf
1986
Skulpturen, Zeichnungen [Sculpture and Drawings], Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, Germany
Drawings and Sculpture, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York, USA
The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY, USA
1964
Sculpture and Drawings,Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA (cat.)
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc., New York, USA
View More