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DAVID SMITH
Cyclists
.
Etching, 1946. 120x158 mm; 4
3
/
4
x6
1
/
4
inches, wide margins. Artist’s proof, likely the only
extant impression; there was no published edition. Printed by the artist on his own press,
Bolton Landing, New York.With an extensive inscription by the artist’s wife Dorothy
Dehner in pencil, left margin and verso. A superb impression of this extremely scarce,
early etching with inky plate edges.
Smith (1906-1965) made his first etching during a stay in Paris (he and his then wife,
Dorothy Dehner, traveled through Europe from 1935 to 1936) at Atelier 17 following an
introduction to Stanley W. Hayter. After returning to the United States, Smith worked
during the late 1930s in the sculpture division of the New York WPA. His work was
included in theWhitney Msueum annual exhibition in 1941 and the “Artists forVictory”
exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1942. Around this time, Smith bought
his own etching press and began to make small-scale etchings, only several impressions of
each, like
Cyclists
. Smith’s main artistic focus was his sculpture, however; from the mid-
1940s onward his three-dimensional work became larger in scale and significantly more
abstract. By the end of his career, Smith had produced a body of important sculptural
work, much of which is today in public collections, that places him as the most acclaimed
sculptor of the Abstract Expressionist movement. Schwartz 29.
[20,000/30,000]