Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 13

David Smith
Untitled

1936

About the Item

"Untitled" is a painting by artist David Smith. The work is signed and dated in the upper left "David Smith (symbol) 1936". When David Smith set up a workshop on the Brooklyn Navy Pier in 1933 to learn direct-metal techniques, he shared the space not with artists, but with professional welders. Yet as he stated in 1964, ‘…all my early friends were painters…I never conceived of myself as anything other than a painter because my work came straight through the raised surface.’ Picasso and Cubism would be dominant influences in Smith’s work. He understood that Picasso imagined the world as a sculptor might, and not necessarily limited to the unavoidable impact of Cubism. In addition to pursuing a kind of rethinking of the world in three-dimensionality on his own terms, by the late 1920s, Picasso had shown interest in surrealism. That meant drawing not as a depiction of reality, but rather as a reconfiguration of the body in an assemblage of often precariously balanced, interconnected forms — some expressed in a three-dimensional form, others as drawings or paintings. Those processes are reflected in this work by David Smith; three fanciful totemic assemblages set within a landscape perspective of ground, mountains, and sky and whose presence is surreal enough to cast shadows under a presumed solar presence. Untitled, 1936 embraces surrealism, yet also serves to demonstrate the extent to which his thought processes are inextricably linked to sculpture and related to scale, spatial orientation, and three-dimensionality. With that in mind, it is not surprising to know that Smith saw no demarcation between sculpture and painting, or that a painting such as Untitled (1936) can exist outside of planning or design for future three-dimensional work. Provenance: Estate of David Smith, New York Hauser & Wirth Private Collection Exhibition: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, ‘David Smith: Skulptureen, Zeichnungen [David Smith: Sculpture and Drawings]’ Dusseldorf/DE, March 14 – April 27, 1986 (travelled to: Städtische Galerie im Stäelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt/DE, June 19 – September 28, 1986: Whitechapel Art Gallery, London/UK, November 7, 1986 – January 4, 1987) Hauser & Wirth New York, ‘David Smith: Origins & Innovations’, New York NY, November 13 – December 23, 2017 Literature: Galerie Hans Strelow, David Smith, Die reifen Jahre 1951-1965. Skulpturen und Zeichnungen’, Dusseldorf/DE: Galerie Hans Strelow, 1986, no. 51 (exh. cat.)
  • Creator:
    David Smith (1906-1965, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1936
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Palm Desert, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 409951stDibs: LU9310579092

More From This Seller

View All
Untitled
By David Smith
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled" is a painting by American artist David Smith. David Smith’s paintings from the 1930s rarely come to market, and when Untitled (Billiard Players) surfaced at a Christie’s auction in 2018, it created quite a stir, realizing an impressive price of $1.15 million. Painted around the same time, Untitled shares many similarities with Untitled (Billiard Players). Both paintings affirm Smith’s place among the American artists when ideas and style began to intermingle and coalesce around Picasso’s innovations. Uniquely positioned in temperament and ability, Smith was a man of considerable ambition whose direct-metal configurations would have much to do with achieving new ideas about abstraction. Yet all along, he insisted he was a painter, not a sculptor who painted. Paintings by Smith...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

L'epreuve
By Roberto Matta
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Roberto Matta. "L'epreuve" is a surrealist painting, oil on canvas in palette of grays, greens, and yellows by Latin American artist Roberto Matta. It is signed in the ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Surrealist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

La Comida
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"La Comida" is an abstract figurative Impressionist oil on canvas painting by María Blanchard. The artwork is 21 1/2 x 28 3/4 inches and is 24 3/4 x 32 1/4 x 2 inches with the frame,...
Category

19th Century Impressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Flooded Small Room
By Ryoko Kato
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Ryoko Kato. "Flooded Small Room" is an acrylic on canvas executed in a bright palette primarily of blues, whites and pinks and depicts a young girl, dressed in a white ...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

Couple
By Constance Mallinson
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A oil on paper painting by contemporary artist Constance Mallinson. "Couple" depicts a man in a woman standing side by side, their bodies comprised of organic materials, bark, leaves...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Paper

How Come
By Irving Norman
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"How Come" is a Modern surrealist oil on canvas painting by Irving Norman in 1968. The artwork is 90 x 60 inches and 91 1/4 x 61 1/2 x 1 5/8 inches with the fram, weighing less than ...
Category

20th Century Surrealist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

For a walk. Oil on loose canvas, 45 x 42 cm
Located in Riga, LV
For a walk. Oil on loose canvas, 45 x 42 cm Victor Karnauh (1950, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukrainian SSR – 2012, Dnepropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine) – a painter, a monument designer, grad...
Category

1990s Abstract Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

American Abstract Expressionist Artist Melissa Meyer Oil Painting Chance
By Melissa Meyer
Located in Surfside, FL
MELISSA MEYER (American, b. 1946), 'Chance' Oil on Canvas 2006 Hand signed, dated and titled, verso Height: 30 inches, Width: 28 inches Provenance: Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH Melissa Meyer (born May 4, 1946) is an American artist and painter. The Wall Street Journal has referred to her as a "lighthearted Abstract Expressionist". She works in various formats, large abstract paintings, watercolors, prints, monotype, monoprint and drawings made up of fields of gestures. This one is abstract swirling hues of purple, red, blue, orange and yellow, Selected solo shows: Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, NY; List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA; New York Studio School, New York, NY; Rebecca Ibel Gallery, Columbus, OH. Selected Group shows: “The Maslow Collection: Context and Content”, The Maslow Study Gallery for Contemporary Art, Scranton, PA; “Summer Reverie Invitational,” William Siegel Gallery, Santa Fe, NM.; "One of a Kind; Monoprints, Monotypes", The Gallery, Spencertown Academy...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Nude Anna with a towel
Located in Edinburgh, GB
The project is dedicated to the author's favorite field of painting and art, namely the expression of dynamics in a static object and the specific relationship of colors. The author ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Large Colorful Abstract Expressionist Oil Painting Modernist Beach Landscape
By Ralph Rosenborg
Located in Surfside, FL
Ralph Rosenborg (American, 1913-1992) "American Landscape, Sky and Shore, 1973" Oil on canvas. Signed 'Rosenborg' (lower right). Titled (verso). 30 x 40 in Ralph Rosenborg (1913–1992) was an American artist whose paintings were described as both expressionist and abstract and who was a colleague of the New York Abstract Expressionists in the 1940s and 1950s. Unlike them, however, he preferred to make small works and tended to explicitly draw upon natural forms and figures for his abstract subjects. Called a "highly personal artist," he developed a unique style that was considered to be both mystical and magic. His career was exceptionally long, covering more than 50 years. Rosenborg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 9, 1913. In 1929, while he was a high school student, he began to work with the designer, artist, and instructor, Henriette Reiss. When Rosenborg encountered her, Reiss was serving as an instructor for the School Art League in the American Museum of Natural History. She was then engaged in instructing both students and their teachers in the city school system by a method she called Rhythmic Design. She believed inspiration for abstract designs could be found in rhythms—rhythms that could be perceived in ordinary perceptions much as they are when listening to music. In May 1930 Reiss selected a drawing by Rosenborg to be shown in an exhibition of creative design by City high school students. From 1930 to 1933, aged 17 to 20, Rosenborg studied with Reiss in what Vivien Raynor of the New York Times called a "pupil-apprentice" relationship. During this time she instructed him in music appreciation, literature, and art history as well as giving technical training in art. In April 1934 Rosenborg was one of 1,500 artists to participate in the annual Salons of America exhibition, which was held that year in Rockefeller Center RCA Building. Each paid two dollars for the privilege of hanging up to three works and none was given prominence over the others. The New York Times reported that by the time the show closed a month later, some 30,000 people had viewed it. The following year he was given a solo exhibition (his first) at the Lounge Gallery of the Eighth Street Playhouse. The year after that he participated in a group show held by the Municipal Art Committee and in 1937 was given a second solo exhibition, this time in the Artists Gallery. That year he also became a founding member of and participated in a group show held by American Abstract Artists, a loose assembly of artists that aimed to promote abstract art and artists in New York. Its founders included Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Werner Drewes, Ibram Lassaw, Mercedes Matter, Louis Schanker, Vaclav Vytlacil and Rudolph Weisenborn. At roughly the same time Rosenborg associated himself with a group of abstractionists that called itself "The Ten" (It included Ben-Zion, Mark Rothko, Adolph Gottlieb and Joe Solman) and in May 1938 joined with its other members in what would be his first appearance in a commercial gallery: the Gallery Georgette Passedoit. In 1938 he his work appeared in a group show at the Lounge Gallery, in 1939 in group shows at the Artists Gallery and at the Bonestell Gallery with David Burliuk, Earl Kerkam, Karl Knaths and Jean Liberte...
Category

1960s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Jute

Thoughts. Oil on canvas, 61x77 cm
By Alain Rothstein
Located in Riga, LV
Thoughts. Oil on canvas, 61x77 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Meeting. 1997. Oil, collage, canvas, 53.5x75 cm
By Alain Rothstein
Located in Riga, LV
Meeting. 1997. Oil, collage, canvas, 53.5x75 cm
Category

1990s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil, Mixed Media

Recently Viewed

View All