David Smith by Dan Budnik, Knoedler & Company, NYC

Seeing David Smith
Photographs by Dan Budnik
Knoedler & Company, New York
March 18 – May 26, 2006

“The fields” would probably not have become two of the more evocative words in the Smith literature without Dan Budnik.” – Michael Brenson (quotation from “The Fields,” originally published in David Smith: A Centennial @ 2006 The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York)

David Smith is widely acclaimed as one of the giants of 20th century sculpture. David Smith’s persona, his working process, his studio, and the “fields” at his home in Bolton Landing, New York, have been the fascination of many photographers—among them Ugo Mulas, Alexander Liberman, and Irving Penn. Dan Budnik’s photography of David Smith, however, is unparalleled in its intimacy and its depth. The exhibition in Knoedler’s lower space presents a rare opportunity to view the master prints themselves—last shown together in 1974.

Dan Budnik (b. 1933), whose career as a photographer has spanned more than half a century, was the most recent recipient of the prestigious American Society of Media Photographers Honor Roll Award. His photo-essays have appeared in periodicals that include Art in America, Life, Fortune, The London Sunday Times Magazine, Look, Modern Photography, Newsweek, The New York Times Magazine, and Vogue.

Seeing David Smith: Photographs by Dan Budnik coincides with the comprehensive retrospective of Smith’s work at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with an introduction by E.A. Carmean, Jr. and text by Dan Budnik.

KNOEDLER & COMPANY
19 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021
www.knoedlergallery.com

David Smith, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas - Drawing and Sculpting

David Smith: Drawing and Sculpting
Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas
April 16 - July 17, 2005

The Nasher Sculpture Center presents David Smith: Drawing and Sculpting. Co-organized by the Nasher Sculpture Center and the David Smith Estate, the exhibition assembles approximately fifteen seminal sculptures and seventy major drawings and paintings from the Nasher Collection, the David Smith Estate, and other public and private collections. Featuring many works that have never been publicly displayed before, the exhibition illustrates not only the range and quality of David Smith’s work as a draftsman, but also the complex ways that his drawings and paintings inform his three-dimensional work.

David Smith has long been recognized as one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His protean career single-handedly brought new maturity and international ambition to American sculpture. Forty years after his death, his works still astonish in their variety, technical mastery and brawny creative energy. So powerful is David Smith’s legacy as a sculptor, however, that other, highly accomplished aspects of his art exist in a shadowy realm of limited acknowledgement and investigation. Such is the case with his drawings.

David Smith drew regularly throughout his career for many different reasons: to make notes, plan sculptures, jot down observations, explore graphic techniques, relax, and make beautiful, independent works of art. His vast output of works on paper provides a telling record of his visual thought and experimentation and in themselves represent a great aesthetic accomplishment. But they have never received the recognition they deserve. David Smith: Drawing and Sculpting focuses on David Smith’s history and talents as a draftsman and explore the fascinating interaction between his drawings, paintings, and sculptures. Works exhibited span from David Smith’s early development in the 1930s under the influence of European modernism to the powerful and evocative constructions in iron and steel from his maturity, and the drawings that accompanied them.

“This is one of the few exhibitions ever mounted to examine the interactions between Smith’s work in different media,” said Dr. Steve Nash, Director of the Nasher Sculpture Center. “We want to spotlight the power and beauty of Smith’s drawings and also contribute to the understanding of his working methods. It will be a pleasure and honor to exhibit in Dallas so many outstanding works by this great artist.”

Two special public programs are offered to Center guests in conjunction with the exhibition. First, a 28-minute film, David Smith: American Sculptor, 1906-1965, is showing continuously in a viewing room adjacent to the exhibition. David Smith’s ideas about art and his methods are revealed in archival footage of the artist, through reminiscences of the sculptor by his daughters, and by fellow artists Helen Frankenthaler and the late Robert Motherwell.

Secondly, on Thursday, May 5 at 7 p.m., Candida Smith, daughter of the artist and representative of The Estate of David Smith, and Peter Stevens, Executive Director of The Estate of David Smith will present illustrated lectures entitled Remembering David Smith. Following the presentations, Nash will moderate an informal discussion including audience participation.

Steve Nash and Candida Smith are co-curators for the exhibition. Both are contributing essays to the show’s catalogue, which features full-page illustrations of all works in the show, many historical photographs of David Smith and his art and studio, and a compendium of statements by Smith on drawing.

NASHER SCULPTURE CENTER
2001 Flora Street, Dallas, TX 75201
www.nashersculpturecenter.org