The Making of an American Sculptor: David Smith Criticism, 1938-1971

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dc.contributor.advisorAdler, Dan
dc.creatorBissonnette, Meghan Leia
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-28T14:54:39Z
dc.date.available2015-08-28T14:54:39Z
dc.date.copyright2014-08-29
dc.date.issued2015-08-28
dc.date.updated2015-08-28T14:54:39Z
dc.degree.disciplineArt History and Visual Culture
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractAt the time of his death in 1965 at the age of 59, American sculptor David Smith was widely recognized as one of the greatest sculptors of his generation. By then, he had been honoured with a mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, and had represented the United States at Documenta and major biennales at Venice (on two occasions) and São Paolo. Countless studies have analyzed Smith’s career and artistic development, but very little has been written on the published criticism of his work or its larger impact on our understanding of this artist. In this dissertation I examine the historiographic reception of his sculpture from 1938, the year of his first solo exhibition, until 1971 when Rosalind Krauss published Terminal Iron Works, the first monograph on Smith. I trace this reception from the early focus on Smith’s biography and working methods (the biographical paradigm), to the later interest in formal analysis (the formalist paradigm). I further analyze this criticism in the context of artistic developments in the 1940s and 1950s, namely Abstract Expressionist painting and sculpture. In the process, I draw out common themes, tropes and narratives that appear in the criticism on Smith and the Abstract Expressionists. To do so, I engage in a close textual analysis of the exhibition reviews, magazine and newspaper articles, and catalogue essays published during this period. I demonstrate that this reception is culturally, socially, and ideologically informed. References to Smith’s biography, working methods, materials, and exceptionalism all point to the aims, desires and interests of the writers, but also to the influence of social and cultural factors. Ultimately, I intend to provide a revisionist history of Smith’s work that draws out the mythology that this reception contributed to—a mythology that continues to shape our understanding of mid-twentieth-century American art.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/29883
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectArt history
dc.subject.keywordsDavid Smith
dc.subject.keywordsAbstract Expressionism
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican art
dc.subject.keywordsArt and nationalism
dc.subject.keywordsSculpture
dc.subject.keywordsTwentieth century art
dc.subject.keywordsModern art
dc.subject.keywordsHistoriography
dc.subject.keywordsArt criticism
dc.subject.keywordsClement Greenberg
dc.subject.keywordsArt history
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican art criticism
dc.titleThe Making of an American Sculptor: David Smith Criticism, 1938-1971
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US

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