Cubi XIII

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David Smith, American, 1906–1965

Cubi XIII, 1963

Stainless steel

The John B. Putnam Jr. Memorial Collection, Princeton University

y1969-19

Leaflet

Hear his Daughter (y1969-19)

This is a recorded interview with Candida Smith, daughter of the artist David Smith. She was on campus with her friend, the artist Ursula von Rydingsvard, during the installation of von Rydingsvard's sculpture URODA in front of the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment in November 2015. It was recorded in the field, and for this reason the sound quality is not optimal.

It's remarkable in that it's the only Cubi with a round element. He talked about why he used circles so much, and he said it was because circles were everything—they're the belly, they're the mouth, they're the womb. He was planning the series for thirty years. He had drawings relating to something like this, volumetric elements, but he couldn't afford to have them fabricated. At that time, you had to be in a real industrial situation to weld stainless steel. It's very difficult to weld, but he could manipulate the elements, arranging and rearranging these elements in the same way that we were children at the time building things out of blocks. He would play with blocks with us, and that's a very fast way of sketching, in a way—for a cubist artist. It's fun, and the element of play is essential in art, and the element of play is essential if you just open your eyes and look at Cubi—you can see the playfulness in it. It comes from not just the sun shining in it but the playfulness of how “movemented” everything is. How everything rushes on, balances, teeters, contrasts, hurries—it's exciting, and it's playful. I see it in a lot of painted pieces, and he actually made pieces inspired by little-kid art that we used to do. He took our ideas seriously and talked seriously to us about art because he really believed we had something to say—that we could still play, and he was trying to find that through us. Many parents rediscover their playful selves through their children. And, as an artist, my father, David Smith, did everything as an artist, he cooked as an artist, he did dishes as an artist, he played with his kids as an artist, he was never not an artist.