Property from the Descendants of Douglass Crockwell (Lots 383-386) Douglass Crockwell, primarily known as a successful commercial artist who contributed numerous cover illustrations to the Saturday Evening Post, was also involved in avant-garde experiments of his own. In the early 1930's David Smith began spending much of his time in Bolton Landing, in close proximity to Crockwell's home in Glenn Falls, New York. When the two were introduced through their mutual friend John Graham they quickly cultivated a close and lasting friendship. When in 1964 Crockwell became acing director of the Hyde Collection in Glenn Falls he mounted David Smith: Sculpture and Drawings in the summer of that year, marking the first temporary exhibition to take place at the museum. Through Smith, Crockwell was introduced to the complexities of surrealism which served as inspirations for much of his personal artistic exploration. Their creative inquiries were greatly in line at this moment and in 1934 when Crockwell began experimenting with alternative mediums and stop motion animation Smith in fact collaborated on numerous dream-like, surrealistic sequences for a series of short films. The prints of David Smith stand as powerful examples of an extremely sophisticated artistic sensibility. Smith worked as a machinist during the Second World War though he was personally apposed to the politics and effects of war, this profound disenchantment served to fuel his iconography for the remainder of his career. Whether literally depicting the carnage and inhumanity in early works such as Women in War, which graphically depict the violence of combat and serve as outright protests to conflict, or the more introspective later works like Don Quixote which impart a more abstracted psychological and sometime anxious energy, it is clear the artist's symbolism is preoccupied with a deep rooted moral dialogue.

DAVID SMITH (1906-1965)

Women in War (Schwartz 23)

细节

DAVID SMITH (1906-1965)
Women in War (Schwartz 23)
etching, 1941, on wove paper, signed, titled and dated in ink, annotated 'E 10 #5', inscribed 'for D.C.', from the edition of approximately 15, with wide margins, pale light-staining, scattered pinpoint foxing and a few small stains in places, otherwise in good condition, framed
P. 6 7/8 x 8 7/8 in. (175 x 225 mm.)
S. 9¾ x 12¼ in. (248 x 311 mm.)