David Smith. Follow My Path

‘David Smith: Follow My Path’ invites viewers to explore Smith’s daring artistic processes as he revolutionized notions of sculpture’s form and function. Smith, a member of the abstract expressionist generation, eschewed conventional sculptural methods such as casting and carving in favor of modern industrial techniques and materials. From the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York, where he worked largely in isolation, Smith produced abstract works of art that were inspired by human experience yet are uniquely expressive and self-contained. ‘Sculpture exists on its own, it is an entity,’ he wrote to the public in 1952. ‘I want you to travel, by perception, the path I traveled in creating it.’ 

This exhibition is organized around specific sculptures from each decade of Smith’s career, highlighted by related drawings, paintings, sketchbook studies, and photographs by Smith of his workspace, of sculptures in progress, and of sculptures he arranged in the fields surrounding his home. Each group of work represents a concise ‘chapter’ in the story of Smith’s artistic production that relates to the format of entries in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné, ‘David Smith: Sculpture,’ to be released in Fall 2021. The exhibition features works of art from major museums, international private collections, and the Estate of David Smith, and occasions the first time that many of the works will be shown in public.