About the Artwork
Traditionally, sculpture was created by carving in stone or wood or casting in bronze, but American sculptors in the 1950s began to make "constructed sculptures" by welding, bolting, or otherwise affixing elements together. Cubi I, the first of Smith's final series of sculptures, is constructed of cubes of stainless steel welded together, their surfaces polished to a high gloss and then abraded. The burnishing allows the surface to take on, without directly reflecting, the colors of the world around it. By giving this work a strongly frontal orientation, Smith plays with our perception of the difference between two- and three-dimensional objects; our understanding of the sculpture equivocates between flatness and bulk, between line and volume, and between balance and weight.
Cubi I
1963
David Smith
1906 - 1965
American
Unknown
Stainless steel
Overall: 124 × 34 1/2 × 33 1/2 inches (315 cm × 87.6 cm × 85.1 cm)
Sculpture
Contemporary Art after 1950
Founders Society Purchase, Special Purchase Fund
66.36
Copyright not assessed, please contact [email protected].
Markings
Signed on base: David Smith
Inscribed, dated, titled on base: March 4-63 Cubi I
Provenance
the artist's studio
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery
1966-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Suggest FeedbackPublished References
Rubin, William. "David Smith." Art International 7 (December 1963): 48-49 (ill.).
"Malerei Skulptur." Documenta III. Cologne, 1964, no.3, p. 296, p. 297 (ill.).
David Smith: A Memorial Exhibition. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1965, p. 8-9 (ill.).
Arts Council of Great Britain. David Smith 1906-1965. London, 1966, p. 27.
David Smith 1906-1965: A Retrospective Exhibtion. Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University. Cambridge, 1966, p. 88, p. 55 (ill.).
Greenberg, Clement. "David Smith: Critical Comment." Art in America 54 (January-February 1966): 27-32 (ill.).
Gray, Cleve, ed. David Smith by David Smith. New York, 1968, p. 151 (ill.).
David Smith. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1969, pp. 154-155 (ill.).
Noguchi and Rickey and Smith. Exh. cat., Indiana University Art Museum. Bloomington, 1970, p. 38, p. 40 (ill.).
Mendelowitz, D.M. A History of American Art. Second edition. New York, 1970, fig. 676, p. 500.
Krauss, Rosalind E. Terminal Iron Works: The Sculpture of David Smith. Cambridge, 1971, pp. 183-184 (ill.).
Bulletin of the DIA 50, no. 2 (1971): 20 (ill.).
"The Detroit Institute of Arts Illustrated Handbook", 1971, p.184.
"200 Years of American Art," The Whitney Museum of American Art, 1976, no.255, p.347., p.190:color plate 49, p.160:ill, cover ill.
Silver, Jonathon. "Remaking the History of American Sculpture." Art News 75 (Summer 1976): 70-72 (ill.).
Krauss, Rosalind E. The Sculpture of David Smith: A Catalogue Raisonne. New York, 1977, p.117, fig. 649.
Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. David Smith: Painter, Sculptor, Draftsman. Exh. cat., Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Washington, D.C., 1982, p.18.
David Smith. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1982, p. 201, pp. 221-223.
Tuchman, Phyllis. "In Detail: David Smith and 'Cubi XVIII.'" Portfolio 5 (January-February 1983): 78-82.
David Smith: Medals for Dishonor, 1937-1940. Exh. cat., Henry Moore Center for the Study of Sculpture. Leeds, 1991, p. 19.
David Smith 1906-1965. Exh. cat., IVAM/Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia. Madrid, 1996, pp. 244-245, p. 268.
Replacing the Shower of Sparks with the Spray of Paint: Sprays and Drawings. Birmingham, MI, 1997.
The Fields of David Smith. New York, 1999, p. 130 (ill.).
Crossroads of American Sculpture: David Smith, George Rickey, John Chamberlain, Robert Indiana, William T. Wiley, Bruce Nauman. Indianapolis, 2000, p. 108 (ill.).
Welded Sculpture of the Twentieth Century. Exh. cat., Neuberger Museum of Art. New York, 2000, p. 29, fig. 29.
David Smith: A Centennial. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 2006, fig. 104.
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Credit Line for Reproduction
David Smith, Cubi I, 1963, stainless steel. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Special Purchase Fund, 66.36.
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