Riddle of America, The - Waldorf Research Institute

were Reuben Nakian, Theodore Roszak, Seymour Lipton, Ibram Lassaw,and Herbert Ferber. With the addition of either found objects or a largerscale, other sculptural approaches developed from this beginning— especiallythe welded assemblages or constructions (sometimes called “junk”or “funk” sculpture) of Richard Stankiewicz, John Chamberlain (crushedautomobiles), Mark di Suvero, Anthony Caro, and George Sugarman; andthe huge-scale “primary structures“ of Tony Smith, Ronald Bladen, DavidBlack, and Mathias Goeritz.The pioneering sculptural work of David Smith (1906–1965) encompassedmore than one of these approaches. Learning to weld in an automobileplant and a Second World War locomotive factory, Smith first applied histechnical expertise to larger welded sculptures during the later 1940s onhis upstate New York farm. From the beginning, he took up the theme oflandscape or wilderness (both natural and psychological) with an emphasison a central American theme: the relationship of the heroically isolated individualto the vastness of nature (especially the encounter of earth and sky).In this connection, he executed a number of works on the theme of flightor levitation, involving bird-like forms and complexes of rising metal arcs.In the early 1950s he began incorporating pieces of agricultural equipment,integrating their original function into the total structure of his designs. Afew years later he discovered that highly reflective metal surfaces (sterlingsilver, polished stainless steel) created gestural light-reflection designs that“pictorialized” the surfaces of his sculptures, creating a moving, allovercalligraphy of light effects that caused them to appear nearly as immaterialas light itself (especially outdoors).But it was only in his last four years of life that Smith began producinghis group of almost thirty monumental Cubi sculptures that integratedthese various concerns (Figure 20). Assembled from modular units of hollowsteel boxes and cylinders and polished to create vibrant sunlight reflections,these standing forms were composed of floating cubical “clouds” suspendedbetween heaven and earth. These gravity-defying figures continued the imageof the lonely hero actively confronting the universe (or at least an infinitelandscape) with the defiant gesture of an Ahab. Yet these Cubi images seemto be equally internalized, subjective visions, achieving a dynamic ambiguitybetween sculptural volume and pictorial reflectivity. As with most of Smith’swork, much of the vitality of the Cubi figures derived from his imitationof the functioning of natural forces, such as movement, tension, resistance,gravity, balance, and growth. Smith’s figures showed in a modern way whatsculpture can do that painting cannot: create a concentrated incarnation offorces and values within a symbolic freestanding object.133