Steel
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/david-smith-1953" aria-label="More by David Smith" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">David Smith</a>
Home Welder
Presented by Candida Smith, Rebecca Smith and Peter Stevens (Tate Americas Foundation) 2022
abstraction
animals: mammals
chain
dog - non-specific
domestic
donkey
figure
from recognisable sources
furnishings
interior - non-specific
interiors
man-made
millstone
mirror
natural phenomena
objects
organic
reflection
society
symbols and personifications
tools and machinery
work - millstone
<p>Home of the Welder was made shortly after the Second World War. The work reflects Smith’s personal circumstances. He had just been released from his wartime job as a welder, which he believed had restricted his creative work. The various elements in the sculpture relate to his dreams and frustrations at the time. It can be seen as Smith's coded diary. The millstone was identified by Smith as representing his job as a welder. The images of women and children may reflect tensions in his first marriage, from which he did not have children.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2020</em></p>
sculpture steel
3 August 2001 – 8 December 2002
2002-12-08
3 August 2001 – 8 December 2002
2002-12-08
2001-08-03
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2001-08-03
Fantastic Worlds
Collection based display
3 March 2003 – 2 November 2005
2005-11-02
3 March 2003 – 2 November 2005
2005-11-02
2003-03-03
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2003-03-03
Still Life Introductory
Collection based display
21 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
21 December 2005 – 27 September 2015
2015-09-27
2005-12-21
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2005-12-21
Surrealism and Beyond
Collection based display
26 January 2006 – 11 September 2006
2006-09-11
26 January 2006 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
2006-01-26
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA)
10 June 2006 – 11 September 2006
2006-09-11
2006-06-10
Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou (Paris, France)
http://www.centrepompidou.fr
2006-01-26
David Smith: A Centennial
Loan-out
1 November 2006 – 21 January 2007
2007-01-21
3 February 2006 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
2006-02-03
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA)
14 June 2006 – 21 August 2006
2006-08-21
2006-06-14
Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou (Paris, France)
http://www.centrepompidou.fr
1 November 2006 – 21 January 2007
2007-01-21
2006-11-01
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2006-11-01
David Smith Sculptures 1933-1965
Exhibition
22 June 2019 – 5 January 2020
2020-01-05
22 June 2019 – 5 January 2020
2020-01-05
2019-06-22
Yorkshire Sculpture Park (Wakefield, UK)
2019-06-22
David Smith
Loan-out
31 March 2023 – 2 July 2023
2023-07-02
31 March 2023 – 2 July 2023
2023-07-02
2023-03-31
Fundación Juan March (Madrid, Spain)
http://www.march.es
2023-03-31
Scale: Sculpture (1945-2020)
Loan-out
Home of the Welder
object: 533 × 438 × 356 mm
Presented by Candida Smith, Rebecca Smith and Peter Stevens (Tate Americas Foundation) 2022
<br/>David Smith made <i>Home of the Welder</i> at his home in Bolton Landing in upstate New York soon after the end of the Second World War. During the war Smith had been employed as a welder, a profession which had restricted his creative work and which he probably identified with the millstone in the centre of this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculpture</span></a>. The varied handling of surfaces in the sculpture demonstrate Smith's ability to use <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/metal" title="Glossary definition for 'Metal'"><span>steel</span></a> to pictorial effect. Other references to <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/welding" title="Glossary definition for 'Welding'"><span>welding</span></a> in the work include the gibbet-like yard-arm to the side of the main panel.

<p>The sculpture is a highly personal depiction of the artist's studio and can be seen as expressing the conflict between art and domestic life. Details such as the dog (on the right) and the plant (on the left) confirm a sense of autobiography and introduce elements of the unexpected, reflecting Smith's admiration for <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/surrealism" title="Glossary definition for 'Surrealism'"><span>Surrealist</span></a> sculpture. The work can be specifically related to the constructed sculptures of interiors made by Alberto Giacommetti such as <i>The Palace at 4 A.M.</i> 1932-3 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). 

</p><p>In an undated letter to Marian Willard, Smith commented on the imagery in <i>Home of the Welder</i>: 

</p><p>Living room - Female pedestal on which grows a welder's dream flower. A millstone hangs around his neck related to his job. Duck sitting on a cushion - a welder's idea. Dumbells - <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>Paintings</span></a> and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawings</span></a> made by the Welder in his room in locomotive works. Woman and jackass. Top of room - a head projecting from frame picture, Otherside - Welder's wife in the bedroom in front of a big mirror. Angular locomotive - A Woman made of locomotive parts, looking in mirror is a glamorous version of himself. (Quoted in Marcus, p.75.)

</p><p>These comments relate to the sculpture seen from the front. The back of the work consists of an oval <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/relief" title="Glossary definition for 'Relief'"><span>relief</span></a> showing a reclining woman holding what appears to be a mirror or a flower. On the basis of Smith's statement above, this woman was his wife of the time, the artist Dorothy Dehner. The art historian Edward Fry has compared the image to a mermaid 'who simultaneously engenders and frustrates desire' (Fry, p.40). In front of this relief is a small dog on whose tail there is a tiny replica of the woman's face. 

</p><p>In 1969 Edward Fry described <i>Home of the Welder</i> as 'one of the greatest examples of autopsychoanalysis in the history of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/m/modernism" title="Glossary definition for 'Modernism'"><span>modern art</span></a>' (Fry, p.41). His comment was part of an extensive interpretation of the sculpture which related every feature to aspects of Smith's personal life:

</p><p>The symbolic meaning of <i>Home of the Welder</i> is elusive and ambiguous. Certain elements, notably the millstone and chain, are used as though verbal metaphors, to indicate oppression; the source of this oppression, however, whether home, marriage, or work, is unclear. The stand undoubtedly refers to his sculpture, springing forth like a plant from the woman-base that nourishes and supports it. The dog and woman, however, hanging as separate images on the wall, are ironically juxtaposed on the back of the sculpture: in a multiple visual and verbal pun, the woman reflected in the mirror is the reflection of the dog, who has become an ass and whose head and tail counterreflect the tail and head in the mirrored image of the mermaid-woman. (Fry, p.40.)

</p><p>Further Reading:

</p><p>Edward  F. Fry,<i> David Smith</i>, exhibition catalogue, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York 1969, reproduced pp.40-1 <br/>David Smith, <i>David Smith: Sculpture and Writings</i> (edited by Cleve Gray), London 1968<br/>Stanley E. Marcus, <i>David Smith: The Sculptor and His Wor</i>k, Ithaca and London 1983, reproduced pp.44-5

</p><p>Sophie Howarth<br/>November 2000<br/></p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Home of the Welder was made shortly after the Second World War. The work reflects Smith’s personal circumstances. He had just been released from his wartime job as a welder, which he believed had restricted his creative work. The various elements in the sculpture relate to his dreams and frustrations at the time. It can be seen as Smith's coded diary.  The millstone was identified by Smith as representing his job as a welder.  The images of women and children may reflect tensions in his first marriage, from which he did not have children.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-08-21T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
abstraction animals: mammals chain dog - non-specific domestic donkey figure from recognisable sources furnishings interior - non-specific interiors man-made millstone mirror natural phenomena objects organic reflection society symbols and personifications tools and machinery work - millstone