Untitled (September 13, 1958) 1958

Curator: I am drawn to the frenetic energy in this piece. The brushstrokes just seem to explode across the surface. Editor: Well, buckle up then, because we're diving into a work by David Smith, a sculptor known for his welded metal forms, though he occasionally flirted with painting and drawing too. This untitled piece, dated September 13, 1958, is a great example of his gestural work with ink. Curator: Gestural is right! There’s such immediacy to it. The high contrast, that bold black ink, slashing and dancing across the paper—it feels almost… violent. Editor: Interesting choice of words. I read it as more celebratory, like a spontaneous outburst of emotion, capturing the pulse of a specific moment in time. Think about that date: September 13, 1958. What was happening then? What was Smith feeling that day? Was this emotional response fueled by cold war, nuclear war or social angst? Curator: Ooh, now you’re taking me where I love to go. Remember Abstract Expressionism, the movement Smith was loosely associated with? It was all about tapping into the subconscious, expressing raw feeling. The line is significant to me: it symbolizes human limits in experience as well as our capacity for transcendence. Editor: But what about the symbolism, if any? What do those particular shapes mean to him or represent? Do they signify trauma? Joy? Or just, pure abstraction? That’s the magic of it, I suppose. It resists easy interpretation. Curator: I disagree that is resists interpretation. Every culture holds that geometric, straight, arcing and jagged lines possess potent significance in all cultures. Editor: Exactly. Which leads to the point that there's no single meaning to decode—but a rich tapestry of associations woven into its visual fabric, making the image more evocative. We react, project and intuit to give art feeling. Curator: Well said. It certainly gives you much to ponder about yourself. Thanks, ink drawing. Editor: Until our next art adventure!