DAVID SMITH (1906-1965)

Property from the Estate of SYLVIA B. FELDMAN to benefit the Carnegie-Mellon University and the Carnegie Museum of Art

Details

DAVID SMITH (1906-1965)

Spectre of Mother

stamped with signature and date David Smith 1946 on the side--and stamped with signature and date again David Smith 1946 on a plaque affixed to the base--welded steel and bronze on wooden base
23¼ x 23½ x 9½in. (59 x 59.7 x 24.1cm)

Provenance

Estate of the artist
Robert Alford, Mill Neck, New York

Literature

H. Kramer, "The Sculpture of David Smith", Arts Magazine, Feb. 1960, p. 32 (illustrated)
R. Krauss, The Sculpture of David Smith: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York and London 1977, p. 41, no. 210 (illustrated)
K. Wilkin, David Smith, New York 1984, p. 36 (illustrated)

Exhibited

New York, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, David Smith, Small Sculpture of the Mid-Forties, May-June 1968

Lot Essay

David Smith produced an important group of sculptures in 1945 and 1946 in which he distilled and abstracted the Surrealist and overtly political imagery of his previous work into inventive, ambiguous and suggestive forms. Some of these sculptures, including Spectre of Mother, treat intensely personal subjects not commonly addressed in the medium of sculpture. Here, Smith confronts his strict Methodist family, specifically his mother "who appears to have been a powerful advocate of piety, propriety, and hard work" and not at all supportive of his artistic development. (K. Wilkin, op cit., p. 11)

Smith made a number of drawings of insects in his notebooks, including the praying mantis that dominates Spectre of Mother. According to Krauss, "Dorothy Dehner has said that the praying mantis held a speical horror for Smith, perhaps because it is a female creature which devours males. In this work, Smith's fears about his susceptibilty to the influence of his Midwestern background, and particularly his mother, seem to be expressed." (R. Krauss, op cit., p. 41)