 Hirebecca, 1961 David Smith (American, 1906 - 1965) Welded and painted steel Purchase, 1972 (4092.1) Born in Indiana, David Smith moved to New York City in 1926 to pursue art. Through the artist John
Graham, Smith met avant-garde artists and discovered the welded sculptures of the Spanish-born artists
Pablo Picasso and Julio González, which profoundly inspired him. In 1932, Smith installed a forge and
anvil in his studio at Bolton Landing in upstate New York. At first he made three-dimensional objects
from wood, wire, soldered metal and other found materials but soon graduated to using an
oxyacetylene torch, welding together pieces of steel in much the same way that a painter applied paint
to a canvas. Smith said, “I belong with the painters,” and he often painted the surfaces of his works. Many of Smith’s sculptures made after 1954 bear titles incorporating the names of his daughters,
Rebecca (born 1954) and Candida (born 1955), such as Hirebecca, Hi Candida, Rebecca Circle, Bec-Dida
Day. He remarked that they would stand as perpetual greetings or salutes to the two girls. At the time
they were made, there was scarcely any interest on the part of museums and collectors in Smith’s
sculptures, so he placed them in the fields of his farm at Bolton Landing, often in rows, creating his own
personal sculpture garden. |