David Smith

Acknowledgments A Note on the Texts Introduction THIRTIES AND FORTIES Media: The Materials of the Artist, by Max Doerner, 1935 Current Exhibitions: Abstract Painting in America, 1935 In America You Feel, 1935–36 An Expression of Emotion That Cannot Be Put into Words, 1935–36 The Concept Is Primary, 1938–39 The Architect Should Be Able to Judge, 1939–40 Modern Sculpture and Society, 1939–40 Abstract Art in America, 1940 Medals for Dishonor, Responses to Questions from Elizabeth McCausland, 1940 Sculpture: Art Forms in Architecture—New Techniques Affect Both, 1940 Medals for Dishonor, 1940 The Recurrences of Totemism, c. 1945 The Visual Arts, 1945 I Have Erected a Solid, c. 1945 A River Mts, c. 1945 The Sculpture Produces an Environment, c. 1945 To Keep from Becoming Enslaved, c. 1945 The Technique, Brushstrokes, Chisel Marks, c. 1946 Landscape Fish Clouds, 1946–47 The Question—What Is Your Hope, c. 1947 One of the Early Impressions, c. 1947 Lecture, Skidmore College, 1947 The Landscape; Spectres Are; Sculpture Is, 1947 Design for Progress—Cockfight, 1947 The Sculptor’s Relationship to the Museum, Dealer, and Public, 1947 The Golden Eagle—A Recital; Robinhood’s Barn, 1948 Foreword, Dorothy Dehner: Drawings, Paintings, 1948 FIFTIES Report for Interim Week, 1950 Statement, Herald Tribune Forum, 1950 Sculpture Hopes to Be, 1950 Notes on Books, 1950 The Question—What Are Your Influences, 1950 Autobiographical Notes, 1950 What I Believe about the Teaching of Sculpture, 1950 The Flight Paths of Birds Moths Insects, 1950–51 Notes—Watch a Torn Sheet, c. 1951 What Happens to Barnyard Grass, 1951 Foreword—(Apology of a Juryman), 1951 Notes on Seven Sculptures, 1951 Progress Report and Application for Renewal of Guggenheim Fellowship, 1951 And So This Being the Happiest—Is Disappointing, 1951 Notes for Elaine de Kooning, 1951 The Joint Is Foul with Smoke, 1951 Sketchbook Notes: The Red of Rust; The Metaphor of a Symbol; The Position for Vision; Reading, 1951–52 Sketchbook Notes: Music; The Cloud; Space; And in the Best of Squares, 1951–52 Lecture, Williams College, 1951 Problems of the Contemporary Sculptor, 1952 The Language Is Image, 1952 The New Sculpture, 1952 Atmosphere of Early ’30s, 1952 A Head Is a Drawing, c. 1952 The Modern Sculptor and His Materials, 1952 I Have Seen Some Critics, 1952 Lecture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 1952 Lecture, Fourth Annual Woodstock Art Conference, 1952 Relative to Tanktotem I (Pouring), 1952 How Far Away from Imitation of Reality, 1952 Statement, WNYC Radio, 1952 Who Is the Artist?, 1952 Notes on Details—Technical, c. 1952–53 Do We Dare to Do Bad Works, 1952–53 Sometimes a Drawing Gets Too Complete, 1953 Lecture, Portland Art Museum, 1953 Books: African Classics for the Modern, 1953 Sketchbook Notes: From the Textures; The Part to the Whole; There Is Something Rather Noble About Junk, 1953 Notes While Driving, 1953 The Artist and Art in America, 1953 I Sat Near My Window, 1953 Thoughts on Sculpture, 1953 Symposium: Art and Religion, 1953 How Little I Know, 1953–54 The Artist’s Image, 1954 Notes from a Sketchbook Titled “Nature,” 1954 Second Thoughts on Sculpture, 1954 The Artist, the Critic, and the Scholar, 1954 Tradition, 1954 Lecture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 1954 Contribution by the Aesthetician, 1954–55 Defi ne Technique, c. 1955 Editions, Duplication, c. 1955 It Has Got to Make Big, 1955 Notes—Improvised Upon, 1955 To Make a Mark, 1955 The Artist in Society, 1955 Drawing, 1955 And Drawings before the Etching or the Print, 1955 Sketch—Oil Painting—The Infl uence—The Historian, c. 1956 González: First Master of the Torch, 1956 Lecture, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, 1956 Sketchbook Notes: He May Be Intuitive Enough to Make It; Nothing Put Down with Force and Conviction Is Meaningless, 1957 Sculpture and Architecture, 1957 Selden Rodman, Conversation with David Smith, 1957 False Statements; Editor’s Letters, 1957 Contemporary Sculpture and Architecture, 1957 Letters: American Art at the Met, 1958 Is Today’s Artist With or Against the Past?, 1958 Culture and the Ideal of Perfection, 1959 Lecture, Ohio State University, 1959 SIXTIES Notes on My Work, 1960 Interview by David Sylvester, 1960 Thoughts Travel and Come Unexpectedly, 1960 Memories to Myself, 1960 A Protest Against Vandalism; Letters; Rescue Operation, 1960 What Is the Triumph, 1961 Letter to the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institute, 1961 Collective Concept, 1961 Interview by Katharine Kuh, 1962 Sculpture Today, 1962 Sketchbook Notes: The Great Decision; To Think—To Dream; I Do Not Care for the Home Environment, 1962 Sketchbook Notes: The Found Object; Isn’t It Good, 1962 Letter to David Sylvester, 1962 Report on Voltri, 1962–63 A Bin Full of Balls, c. 1963 365 Sketchbook Notes: CUBE III; Drawings Are a Change; Once in a Lifetime You Meet an Ironworks; You Rule Your Own World, 1962–63 Jim and Minnie Ball, c. 1963 I Like to Eat, c. 1964 Interview by Thomas B. Hess, 1964 The Subject Is Me, c. 1964 Interview by Marian Horosko, 1964 Interview by Frank O’Hara, 1964 Some Late Words from David Smith, 1964 Chronology List of Illustration Credits Index