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

The painting is a long rectangle with a black background. Thick white stokes on a slight angle divide the work, roughly, into thirds. A thin white line zigzags connecting the thick strokes. In the lower third, short strokes ending in circles cross and branch from the connecting line. In the next third are vertical lines the thinnest forming a x the thicker forming and inverted L. The third is filled by with thin lines, which from an x, from one of the crossed lines are four lies rising at an angle to the top of the painting.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1994.28
People
David Smith, American (Decatur, IN 1906 - 1965 Bennington, VT)
Title
Untitled
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
20th century
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/232026

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil? and synthetic medium on canvas.
Dimensions
218.4 x 33.3 cm (86 x 13 1/8 in.)
framed: 219.8 x 34.6 x 4.5 cm (86 9/16 x 13 5/8 x 1 3/4 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
David Smith, Bolton Landing, New York, sold; to Lois Orswell, Pomfret Center, Connecticut, 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
1994.28
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. 223, p. 349, 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Drawing Media" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 2003), Unpublished, pp. 1-43 passim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