David Smith - Editions & Works on Paper New York Tuesday, April 20, 2021 | Phillips

Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 20 - 22 April 2021

  • Provenance

    Estate of the artist
    Charles M. Young Fine Prints & Drawings, Connecticut, 1995

  • Literature

    Alexandra Schwartz 36

  • Catalogue Essay

    When Smith made the last print, Untitled (Family) (cat. 36), 1954, he had, by this time, a daughter, born of his second marriage. It is with confident ease that he now draws on the stone, and the smallest touch, curve, or line carries meaning, charged by experience, into a true resolution. This is a lustrous print by a master draftsman, whose images always differed from the general art of his time. Paul Cummings, The Prints of David Smith, 1987, Pace Prints, New York.

    In 1954 David Smith was a visiting artist at the University of Mississippi where printer Reginald Neal was chairman of the art department. Smith and Neal worked together making an edition of the first state of this lithograph, and afterwards Smith asked Neal to add some background tone to the image. Neal resensitized the stone and inked its surface with a roller. The 'halos' which appear around Smith's calligraphic brushwork in the second state resulted from ink deposits left from the first state preventing the roller from hitting the stone. According to Neal, these 'halos' pleased Smith very much. Reginald Neal, interview, April 1985.

Property from a Midwest Collection This lot is to be Sold with No Reserve

167

Lot offered with No Reserve

David Smith

Untitled (Family) (S. 36)

1954
Lithograph, on Rives paper, with full margins.
I. 8 5/8 x 22 3/4 in. (21.9 x 57.8 cm)
S. 10 x 26 in. (25.4 x 66 cm)
The second (final) state with background tone, from the unsigned edition of 20 (there was also a few signed and dedicated impressions and one signed printer’s proof), annotated ‘10’ in pencil lower right corner, with the Estate of David Smith inkstamp on the reverse and numbered ’76-54.26’ in blue ink, framed.

Estimate
$2,000 - 4,000 •

Sold for $4,032

Contact Specialist

Editions@phillips.com

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Editions & Works on Paper

New York Auction 20 - 22 April 2021