In Conversation: Michael Brenson, Christopher Lyon & Nancy Princenthal on the Life and Art of David Smith

To mark the recent releases of the much-anticipated biography of American sculptor David Smith and the comprehensive, three-volume catalogue raisonné of his sculpture, you are invited to join us for a conversation about the artist’s life and work, featuring biographer Michael Brenson and catalogue raisonné editor Christopher Lyon, with art scholar and historian Nancy Princenthal serving as moderator.

This program celebrates two monumental publishing events, each of them years in the making:  Brenson’s ‘David Smith: The Art and Life of a Transformational Sculptor’, published in October by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and ‘David Smith Sculpture: A Catalogue Raisonné, 1932– 1965’ (Christopher Lyon, Editor; Susan J. Cooke, Research Editor), published in fall 2021 by The Estate of David Smith and distributed by Yale University Press. Filled with fresh scholarship and insights, these publications bring into the twenty-first-century the life and achievement of this truly transformational figure.

The talk will provide a brief overview of Smith’s career and sculpture oeuvre, as presented in the catalogue raisonné. A visual presentation of selections from Smith’s body of work, focusing on his series, will offer an ‘aerial view’ of Smith’s expanding conception of his art.

This event is free; reservations are recommended.

Click here to register

About David Smith
One of the foremost artists of the twentieth century and the sculptor most closely linked to the Abstract Expressionist movement, David Smith (1906-1965) is known for his use of industrial methods and materials, and the integration of open space into sculpture. Smith greatly expanded the notion of what sculpture could be, both questioning and advancing its relationship with nature and the expanded field. Smith’s inimitable mix of pure abstraction and poetic figuration produced a humanist vision that has inspired generations of sculptors.