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A long rectangular painting of white rounds and rectangles on a black background.

The painting is a long rectangle with a black background. Long white rectangles diagonally placed at different angles which occasionally overlap are placed from the top to the bottom of the work. Large white circles and discs appear to be painted over and along the length of the rectangular lines, in the lower third is one square with around hole in the center.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1994.26
People
David Smith, American (Decatur, IN 1906 - 1965 Bennington, VT)
Title
Untitled
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1959
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/232025

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil? and synthetic medium on canvas.
Dimensions
244.5 x 33.3 cm (96 1/4 x 13 1/8 in.)
framed: 246.3 x 35 x 4.5 cm (96 15/16 x 13 3/4 x 1 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: David Smith , Signed Date: 1959

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David Smith, Bolton Landing, New York, sold; to Lois Orswell, Pomfret Center, Connecticut, 1959, gift; to the Harvard University Art Museums, 1994.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Lois Orswell
Copyright
© The Estate of David Smith / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
Accession Year
1994
Object Number
1994.26
Division
Modern and Contemporary Art
Contact
am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Marjorie B. Cohn and Sarah Kianovsky, Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, exh. cat., Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2002), cat. no. 221, p. 348, 378
  • Richard Mulholland, "Of Dreams and Visions and Things Not Known: Looking at David Smith's Drawing Media" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2003), Unpublished, pp. 1-43 passim

Exhibition History

  • David Smith: "This work is my identity", Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/03/1995 - 05/05/1996
  • Lois Orswell, David Smith, and Modern Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/21/2002 - 02/16/2003
  • 32Q: 1200 Mid-Century Abstraction I (Painterly Abstraction), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/10/2018 - 06/02/2021

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Modern and Contemporary Art at am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu