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Jill Krementz covers David Smith at the Whitney
David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy
October 6, 2011-January 8, 2012
Whitney Museum of American Art
David Smith
(1906-1965) has been widely heralded as one of the greatest sculptors of the American century. Born in Indiana, Smith moved to New York City in 1936 where he studied at the Art Students League and became friends with abstract artists
John Graham, Stuart Davis, Arshile Gorky,
Willem de Kooning.
He established his studio in a foundry on the Brooklyn waterfront and in 1940 he moved to Bolton Landing, on Lake George, in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York.
Smith exhibited regularly in New York City beginning in 1938. His work was exhibited frequently at the Whitney Museum of American Art and he was given a major retrospective of his work at MoMA in 1957. Following his death at the age of 59 in an automobile accident, a major survey of Smith's work was presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Major retrospective exhibitions have since been held in Australia, France, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.
Now we have a fresh look at the work of this great American artist that offers new insights into his career-long involvement with Geometric abstraction, from his earliest works to his late stainless steel abstractions. Originally organized by
Carol Eliel
for LACMA, and overseen for the Whitney by
Barbara Haskell,
this exhibition includes over sixty works: sculptures, drawings, and paintings, as well as rarely seen sketchbooks and early photographs.
When I revisited the David Smith exhibition on a Saturday I had lunch afterwards at the
Danny Meyer
Cafe at the Whitney. Like most of David Smith's pieces, it, too, calls itself
I had Meyer's signature hamburger and it was delicious. My companion had the poached eggs and grits. The service was excellent, the wait staff cheerful. I highly recommend this excursion while you are gallery hopping.
Cubi V,
Stainless steel
Lectern Sentinel,
Stainless steel
This is the view directly in front of you as you exit the elevator and enter the exhibition on the 4th floor.
If you turn around and face the elevator, this is what you see.
Untitled (Candida),
Stainless steel
Circle III,
Painted steel
Barbara Haskell and Carol Eliel. Ms. Haskell is the Whitney curator who organized the exhibition here in New York. Ms. Eliel, who curated the show when it was on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where she is the curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, edited the catalogue which accompanies the show.
From the catalogue: David Smith Welding
Primo Piano Two
in his Bolton Landing Workshop, 1962; photograph by Dan Budnik. Mr. Budnik is a colleague and friend of mine who photographed David Smith extensively.
David Smith was proud of his blue collar credentials. He was the son of an engineer and the great grandson of a blacksmith. Smith worked as a telephone lineman, a riveter in a Studebaker automobile factory, and a welder at the American Locomotive Company. Proud of the fact that he was a union member, he remained one even after his art career flourished.
"By choice I identify myself with working men and still belong to Local 2054 United Steelworkers of America. I belong by craft--yet the subject of aesthetics introduces a breach. I suppose it is because I believe in the future in a working man's society, and in that society I hope to find a place."
From the catalogue:
On the left:
From Sketchbook #41,
On the right:
Big Diamond, 1
Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester
Vertical Structure--Vertical Construction,
Steel with copper
Blue Construction,
Sheet steel with baked-enamel finish
Smith studied painting at the Art Students League in New York between 1926 and 1932. He credited his teacher Jan Matulka with introducing him to the work of geometric avant-garde artists in Europe. Inspired by the welded-steel sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Catalan sculptor Julio Gonzalez, as well as by his own experiences working as a welder in an automobile factory, Smith turned to sculpture as his primary medium in 1933. His use of sheet steel and a baked-enamel finish in this work predicts his subsequent fusion of industrial materials and painterly techniques.
Gouache and contê crayon on paper
Colored-paper collage on paper
Suspended Cube,
Painted steel
Smith here pays homage to the Russian Constructivists, who sought to blur the lines between art and production in works that used simple, often geometric, forms and industrial materials. He had seen works by Vladimir Tatlin, El Lissitzky, and others reproduced in magazines and likely viewed them in person at the Exhibition of Contemporary Art of Soviet Russia in New York in 1929.
Ink, pastel, and watercolor on paper
View of one of the galleries.
ΔΣ Mar. 9-1963,
Spray enamel and oil on paper
Spray enamel on paper
Untitled (Three Cubi Studies),
Spray enamel on paper
Donna De Salvo, Peter Stevens, and Adam Weinberg. Ms. De Salvo is the Whitney's Chief Curator, Mr. Stevens is the former son-in-law of David Smith and the Executive Director of his estate, and Mr. Weinberg is the Director of the Whitney.
Walter Robinson, the editor of
"Who could pass up a chance to look at David Smith's cubi sculptures?"
Wood and plaster, painted, on wood base
An exhibition print by David Smith from
existing negative, Bolton Landing Workshop, c. 1961;
L. to r.:
Zig III,
1961, and
Black White Forward,
Gelatin silver print by David Smith.
The image is of
Zig VII,
1963 and
Zig VIII,
1964, Bolton Landing, c. 1964
Martin Mullen viewing a collection of David Smith's notebooks. Mr. Mullen is a partner of Museum Projects Partnership, consultants to museums and art related businesses.
Sketchbook spread, c. 1938
Pencil on paper
Sketchbook spread
Notebook #41,
Pencil and Ink on paper
Detail of sketchbook showing notation:
"Research/Joan Carter/Time/Rockefeller Center/NY20", c. 1951
Sketchbook page, c. 1949
Notebook #40, 1950-54
Ink on paper
Alexander Adler, 23, is a New York based art and culture writer.
"Distilling concepts and harvesting materials from various artistic movements as well as commonplace industrial components, Smith must have considered everything he encountered as a possible source, from a broken down Ford to leaves fluttering in the wind, the imagery of Tanguy and Matta to Bosch or Bruegel's demonic critters (visible in a gouache
Mr. Adler is referring to the painting that follows.
Oil on paper mounted on masonite
Look carefully and you can see the artist's signature in upper right hand corner.
Jim Hoberman, who is a film critic for
Village Voice.
Larry Qualls, who has been writing and thinking about art forever.
Albany IX (Little Albany),
Painted steel
Smith obtained the steel for all of the sculptures in his Albany series, including this work, from a foundry in New York's capital city. The title
became the series' only concrete link to the real world. As Smith remarked, "The only tangible was the place where I bought the steel. They are otherwise abstract." Smith had long been preoccupied with circular forms, associating them with "the first wheel of man to wheels on Indian stone temples, to a target on a pyramid I painted in 1934, to all the suns and poetic imagery of movement."
Oil on cardboard
Oil and paper collage on cardboard
5 1/2,
Painted steel
Five Units Unequal,
Oil and collage on cardboard
Black White Forward,
Steel, painted black, brown, white
Detail of:
Black White Forward,
17 h's,
Painted steel
Fifteen Planes,
Stainless steel
Fifteen Planes,
Stainless steel
The Hero,
Painted steel
Tanktotem VII,
Painted steel
All of the sculptures in Smith's
series, including this one, incorporate parts from a manufactured boiler tank. Just as a totem is an object that serves as the emblem of a family and its ancestry, the found object from the tank becomes the uniting feature of this clan of sculptures and a reminder of their origins in industry.
Circle IV,
Painted steel
View of one of the galleries. This is an exhibition worth seeing.
Tanktotem IX,
Painted steel
Detail:Tanktotem IX, 1960
Construction in Rectangles,
Painted steel
Detail of the rectangle at the very top of the totem-pole-ish structure shown to the left:
Construction in Rectangles,
One of the real joys of this show is to walk up very close to the sculptures and see the painted details on the steel.
Big Diamond, 1952
Painted Steel
Rebecca Smith and Barbara Haskell.
Ms. Smith is the daughter of David Smith. She, too, is an artist and has a studio on Watts Street. She also works in her father's studio in Lake George, which she now owns. She is known for her tape drawing installations.
Ms. Smith is having an exhibition of her work at the Virginia Museum
of Fine Arts curated by John Ravenal in 2013.
Rebecca Smith and Adam Weinberg.
Whitney art handler Graham Miles, who helped with the installation. The heaviest piece weighed 18,000 pounds and was installed with a gantry and forklift.
Rebecca Smith standing in front of
Zig III,
painted steel. Ms. Smith owns this piece by her father.
"This exhibition is a wonderful opportunity to see my father's later work beautifully installed with plenty of space to walk around it."
When Rebecca Smith departed from the Whitney she was on her way downtown to join the protesters at Occupy Wall Street. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
Text and photographs © by
Jill Krementz:
all rights reserved.
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In what was described by Riverdale Park Mayor Vernon Archer as a "shake-up of leadership," Calvert Tract LLC has hired a new lead attorney to head up the Cafritz development project.
Larry Taub, an attorney with O'Malley, Miles, Nylen & Gilmore, was named new lead attorney on the project during Monday's Town Council meeting. Taub was also the lead attorney on EYA's Arts District in Hyattsville several years ago, ushering the project through the planning process.
Archer applauded the hiring.
"Larry Taub you were a joy to work with [on the EYA development] and I'm very happy that Mrs. Cafritz chose you to lead the legal team. I have renewed faith," Archer said.
Calvert Tract LLC has also retained a second firm, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, to lead, manage and organize the technical teams on the project. Firm partner Mark Regulinski will head that effort. Regulinski isn't new to this area either, having worked on the American Center for Physics development several years ago.
While the change in legal representation is good, said Archer, the thing he was most excited about was the addition of the project mangers.
"All of the missteps would have been prevented with that kind of professional assistance," Archer said.
The missteps Archer was referring to include the developers last minute withdrawal of their preliminary plans after they failed to meet several conditions, and three draft letters that were presented to the University Park Town Council that some found misleading.
For their part, the new development team is enthusiastic.
"For whatever bumps in the road there have been, this project is moving forward," Taub said. "We do believe it's going to be a great, great addition to the town of Riverdale Park and to the entire area."
Regulinski is also ready to tackle the challenges presented by the project conditions.
"By and large there is tremendous momentum on the project," he said, adding, "The team remains committed to the conditions."
Late last week, the developers sent a letter to the Prince George's County Planning Board announcing their intent to refile the Preliminary Plan of Subdivision. Though he was questioned on this point by Archer, Regulinski would not say when exactly they would resubmit their plans.
"We are beavering away on the issues that remain open so that the refiling, when it does happen, there aren't any surprises or false steps," he said.
Developers must wait a minimum of 30 business days from announcing their intent to refile before resubmitting plans, according to planning board regulations.
There has been no official word on the role that former lead attorney Chip Reed will now play in the project, though Archer said he will likely still be on the team in a different capacity.
Reed had not responded to calls for comment as of the time of publishing.

subset: commoncrawl


text: hen I was seventeen years old, TSR announced that it was creating a Dragon magazine "spinoff " dedicated to publishing adventures. The magazine didn't even have a name at that point, although an obvious choice would present itself soon enough. When the first issue of Dungeon arrived in my mailbox, I nearly died of euphoria. I told my next-door neighbor that I wanted to be the editor of Dungeon magazine and work for TSR one day. It marked the first and last time I had a career epiphany.


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The Express-Star
The Amber-Pocasset High School girls basketball team has won the Grady County Basketball Tournament seven years in a row, and even though the Lady Panthers have a different coach this year, the expectations are the same.
Amber-Pocasset beat the Ninnekah Lady Owls 62-33 on Tuesday night in the first round of the 95th annual Grady County Tournament, giving Reimers a win in his first game in the tournament.
The Lady Panthers won the game the same way they won the tournament last season, and the same way they've won many games in years past. Am-Po pressured the Lady Owls constantly, forcing 18 first-half turnovers and putting the game away early.
Reimers knows what this tournament means to the county. While coaching at various schools around the state of the last 20-plus years, he had heard and read about the tournament that's been held in Grady County since 1919.
"I'd always seen it in the paper," Reimers said. "I'd been in the Comanche County tournament a lot of times while Grady was going on, and I knew and I'd heard rumor that the Grady County was just as prestigious and people flocked to it just as much as they did with the Comanche. So I knew from the Comanche County tournament that if this was anything like it, it was something special."
It didn't take long after Reimers got to Amber-Pocasset High School for him to hear about the expectations for his team in the Grady County Tournament, and the entire regular season.
"It's been talked about, I'll put it that way," Reimers said about keeping the Grady County Tournament win streak going. "I know the importance. They did such a phenomenal job last year in the regular season, going undefeated. I knew we had some tall orders to begin with."
The Lady Panthers only have one senior on the roster, Dontasia McAfee, but have nine juniors, so there are plenty of players on the team who have won the Grady County Tournament multiple times. Reimers saw the importance of the tournament through their excitement.
"When I got to Am-Po, these girls put it on their calendar," Reimers said. "It even goes down to our junior high, our seventh- and eighth-graders."
Amber-Pocasset will be favored in any game it plays in the tournament, and the players and coach are aware of that. But Reimers has also made sure they are aware of how quickly a team can go from being a favorite to being a loser.
The coach uses an example that would be familiar to most anyone interested in basketball in Oklahoma: The Oklahoma City Thunder.
"They hate hearing me bring up the Thunder," Reimers said. "Here a while back, we were in a tournament in Hinton, and we were playing Hammon JV, and it happened to be the night after they played the Wizards, and they had four or five guys out. And I can remember listening to the radio, the Thunder was supposed to win it by a landslide. It wasn't even supposed to be a competition because they were basically playing the bench for the Wizards. What happened? They got beat.
"We know more than anything, we know Dibble isn't going to be the same team that they were when we went to their house just two weeks ago," he said. "Because of the specialty of this tournament, they're going to want to step up, and we've got to step up. The obstacle is going to be taking it one game at a time, and executing in our game that we need to play."
Amber-Pocasset played Dibble on Jan. 8, and beat the Lady Demons 60-28.
Dibble is currently 11-6, and won in the first round of the Grady County Tournament by beating Verden on Monday, 47-25.
The Lady Panthers are scheduled to play the Dibble Lady Demons at 7 p.m. tonight in the semifinals of the Grady County Tournament at Minco.


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By John Prestbo
The right dividend-oriented fund for you depends on how you'll use it in your portfolio.
With the U.S. economy dinged by the government shutdown and painfully slow job growth, it may be a while longer before the Federal Reserve reins in its easy-money policy and interest rates rise. So, equity-income funds and ETFs are likely to remain popular with investors who might otherwise prefer bonds.
'Amazing' facts about the stock market
Does stock-market strength beget more stock-market strength? MarketWatch's Mark Hulbert sorts through some of the rallying cries voiced by the bulls and Wall Street cheerleaders. Photo: Getty Images.
On the other hand, if the U.S. economy continues improving and isn't derailed by a still-dysfunctional Congress and Administration, Fed largesse will start drying up and interest rates head higher in the foreseeable future. In that case, do dividend-paying stocks still appeal?
The answer lies in what you do with the dividends. If you use them for current income, you probably will want to hold on — at least until short-term fixed-income vehicles can deliver comparable amounts of cash. At that point, segueing into lower-volatility notes would make sense.
If you are a total-return stock investor, however, a different calculus is in order. Some research shows that dividend-paying stocks (which also usually have lower volatility) tend to outperform non-payers over longer periods of time. Interruptions may occur when small stocks, many of which don't pay dividends, are in favor. So, while you, too, will want a dividend-focused fund in your portfolio, picking a suitable one is important.
That's because dividend funds vary in both purpose and construction, and as a result have different performance patterns. Below is a table of the leading dividend ETFs (by assets under management). Pay special attention to the relationships between yield and market performance.
|AUM (in
|Fund Name
|3 Mos.
|1 Year
|Vanguard Dividend Appreciation
|iShares Select Dividend
|SPDR S&P Dividend
|Vanguard High Dividend Yield
|iShares High Dividend
|Schwab US Dividend Equity
|WisdomTree Dividend Ex-Financials
In broad terms, the ETFs with the highest yields do not have the best one-year performance and vice versa . The single-best explanation is that companies choose to pay out generous dividends because reinvesting the money in themselves isn't likely to produce significant additional growth, which is what drives market performance.
The highest yields are offered by WisdomTree Dividend Ex-Financials /quotes/zigman/1496663/delayed/quotes/nls/dtn DTN -0.49% , iShares Select Dividend /quotes/zigman/335187/delayed/quotes/nls/dvy DVY -0.68% , and iShares High Dividend /quotes/zigman/4561140/delayed/quotes/nls/hdv HDV -0.65% . All three are based on indexes that weight components by yield or by dividend payouts, which is the main reason they lead this list.
Their performance isn't the best, though, because many of the stocks they hold aren't keeping up with the market. Of the five largest components in the WisdomTree ETF, for instance, three are down or flat over the past year. Ditto for two of the five heaviest stocks in both High Dividend and Select Dividend. Both the iShares Select Dividend and WisdomTree ETFs are heavy in utilities.
The three best-performing ETFs over the past year are SPDR S&P Dividend (SDY) /quotes/zigman/477906/delayed/quotes/nls/sdy SDY -0.37% /quotes/zigman/477906/delayed/quotes/nls/sdy SDY -0.37% , Schwab US Dividend Equity /quotes/zigman/7013936/delayed/quotes/nls/schd SCHD -0.42% and Vanguard Dividend Appreciation /quotes/zigman/1495790/delayed/quotes/nls/vig VIG -0.14% . Two of the three (Schwab and Vanguard) are based on market-capitalization-weighted indexes, albeit with caps on how heavy each stock can get. The SPDR ETF is based on a yield-weighted index, again with weight caps.
More significantly, the indexes underlying these ETFs emphasize the selection of stocks that have paid dividends consistently for 10 to 20 years; two of the indexes also require increased dividends in each of those years. These rules result in selecting stocks with a stronger representation of growth characteristics.
All the indexes have protections against including stocks that sport high yields because they are on their way to dividend cuts or other trouble. In addition, all the ETFs have comfort-inducing track records. Most have been around for five or more years, with the exception of the Schwab and iShares High Dividend, both of which made their debut in 2011.
If all you care about is the cash deposits into your account, you might as well choose the highest yielding of these popular ETFs and not worry about market performance. But if your eye is on the total return stats in your portfolio, you'd do well to investigate the better performers for the one that best fits your objectives.
John Prestbo is retired as editor and executive director of Dow Jones Indexes, now part of S&P Dow Jones Indices, in which Dow Jones & Co., publisher of MarketWatch, holds a small interest. Mr. Prestbo also is an adviser to MarketGrader Capital, which scores stocks on the basis of fundamental factors and chooses components of the Barron's 400 Index.