David Smith

Susan J. Cooke is Associate Director of The Estate of David Smith. Formerly an Associate Curator at The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, she is the author of essays on David Smith, Jean Dubuffet, and Ralston Crawford.

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