2 Circle IV

Artist David Smith American, 1906-1965

Date1962

Dimensionswith base: 9 ft., 11 in. x 65 in.x 28 in. (3 m x 165.1 cm x 71.1 cm)

Mediumpainted steel

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2001.3

Not on View

Collections

Sculpture

Published ReferencesArt in America, No. 53, August, 1965, p. 120, repr.

Budnick, Dan and Ugo Mulas, "A Personal Portfolio," Art in America, Volume 54, No. 1 (January - February 1966), repr. p. 41.

Geldzahler, Henry, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, New York, 1969, illustrated in color on cover (xerox attached) and p. 206, illustrated.

Krauss, Rosalind E., The Sculpture of David Smith: A Catalogue Raisonné, Garland Publishing, New York, 1977, p. 99, repr. fig. 551.

Carmean, Jr., E. A., David Smith, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1982, pp.144 - 146, repr., p.146, fig. 13, fig. 34, and repr. (col.) plate 2, and back cover.

Fry, Edward and Miranda McClintic, David Smith: Painter, Sculptor, Draftsman, Washington, DC, 1982, p. 123, repr. (drawing for the work.)

Merkert, Jörn, ed., David Smith: Sculpture and Drawings, Munich, 1986, p. 50-51, repr.

Mulas, Ugo, Carmen Gimenez, Michael Brenson, and Francisco Calvo Serralier, David Smith, Madrid, 1996, p. 32, repr.

Rosenthal, Mark, Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk Freedom and Discipline, New York, 1996, p. 145, illustrated in color.

Smith, Candida N., Irving Sandler and Jerry L. Thompson, The Fields of David Smith, New York, 1999, pp. 86, 88, illustrated in color.

Berkowitz, Roger M. and Lawrence W. Nichols, "Selected acquisitions made by the Toledo Museum of Art, 1990-2001," The Burlington Magazine, vol. 143, no. 1177, April, 2001, pp. 257, 263, fig. XX (col.).

McMaster, Julie A., The Enduring Legacy: A Pictorial History of the Toledo Museum of Art, Superior Printing, Warren, OH, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 40.

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 345, repr. (col.).

Reich, Paula, Toledo Museum of Art: Map and Guide, London, Scala, 2009, p. 57, repr. (col.)

Exhibition HistoryCambridge, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1966, David Smith, 1906 - 1965. A Retrospective Exhibition, p. 79. (exhibition catalogue author Jane Harrison Cone.).

New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940-1970, 1970, repr. p. 206, repr. (col.) cover. (exhibition catalogue author Henry Geldzahler.).

Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia Collections, 1986.

New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Abstraction in the Twentieth Century: Total Risk, Freedom, Discipline, 1996, p. 145, repr. (col.). (exhibition catalogue author, Mark Rosenthal.)

Mountainville, Storm King Art Center, The Fields of David Smith, 1997-1999, 1999, pp.80, 86, repr. pp. 42, 51 (col.), 88 (col.). (exhibition catalogue authors Candida N. Smith, Irving Sandler and Jerry L. Thompson.)

University Park, Pennsylvania State University, on loan to the Palmer Museum of Art, 2000.

London, Gagosian Gallery, [sculpture and drawing show concurrent with Last Nudes ], January to March 2001.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Clearwater, Bonnie, David Smith Stop Action, North Miami, FL, Museum of Contemporary Art, 1998, fig. 27. (drawing for work incorrectly shown upside down.)Label Text2 Circle IV is one of a series of sculptures in which David Smith, considered perhaps the greatest American sculptor of the 20th century, explored the interaction between shape, color, and gesture. Seen from afar it seems to be simply a round field of yellow over another circular blue field—creating a beautiful interaction between color and form. Coming closer reveals a surprise: 2 Circle IV’s surface is painterly and full of gesture. Smith experimented with automotive paint, but deliberately avoided the smooth finish characteristic of spray application. Instead, he applied the paint with a brush, treating the steel form almost as a shaped canvas. Smith worked as a welder and riveter in a Studebaker factory in 1925 before studying to be a painter. When he turned to sculpture in the early 1930s, he brought both his knowledge of automotive assembly and his training as a painter to his conception of his work. For 2 Circle IV he used an acetylene torch to cut out the abstracted bird-in-flight shapes and welded the two imperfect circles together.