“There is no such thing as truly abstract. Man always has to work from his life.”

— David Smith

David Smith (1906–1965). Pillar of Sunday, 1945. Painted steel, 78.74 x 42.2 x 8.89 cm. Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington. © Estate of David Smith / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Completed in August of 1945, Pillar of Sunday is a witty and ironic commentary that incorporates memories from Smith’s teenage years, growing up in the small town of Paulding, Ohio. Art historians have frequently interpreted the imagery attached to this sculpture like leaves on a tree. Although some of the imagery is clearly recognizable, including birds and an inscribed heart, the meaning of these personal symbols is less apparent.

The private symbolism of works such as Pillar of Sunday is suggestive, ambiguous, and open to multiple interpretations. This work and others from the period are thought to be Smith’s way of processing childhood recollections. “Just as the child who draws a landscape or outer-space battle inhabits that scene as he creates it, so Smith seems to have inhabited and animated the forms he was inventing.” It has been suggested that one reason abstraction may have appealed to Smith is that it provided a way for him to both express and disguise his innermost feelings. Through the use of abstraction he could recover and use potent memories without revealing himself entirely. The ambiguity of his symbols, which frequently merge many images into one, provided Smith with the freedom to invent new combinations, and the viewer with the freedom to interpret them.

His glyphs are pictorial objects, fetish-like things, usually quite complex and realized in the round. However disguised and ambiguous, these forms often seem to be the carriers of the symbolic implied content of the sculpture. In many works, a variety of linear structures (in this case the tree-like structure) display or enclose the glyphs. Smith creates the expectation that Pillar of Sunday is a puzzle, waiting to be deciphered, but this approach may not yield success for the viewer. More often than not, Smith revealed in order to conceal. As his work evolved these personal symbols would be replaced by more direct and intuitive responses to materials.

• Describe this sculpture as carefully as you can.
• What are your initial reactions to this work?
• Does this sculpture look like or make you think of anything? If so, what?
• Smith grew up in Paulding, a small town in Ohio, and it is believed that this sculpture was based on his memories of Sundays that he spent in Paulding. Although we do not know exactly what this sculpture meant to Smith, what recognizable images does he include?
• Although Smith did not elaborate on the individual meaning of each symbol, what do you think their meaning might be?
• Why might an artist decide to be ambiguous about some of the symbols and images he/she creates?
• Do you think it is necessary to understand the artist’s meaning in a work of art in order to appreciate it?

• The inspiration for Pillar of Sunday was Smith’s childhood memories related to the events, rituals, foods, and sounds that he associated with the Sundays of his boyhood. Make a list of the various associations that you have with Sunday. Be sure that they include all of your senses: things that you see, taste, smell, hear, and touch during the course of the day. Compose a poem using these words and share it with your classmates. What title will you use for your poem about Sunday?
  English / Language Arts


• Some symbols contain clear and easily understood ideas, while others can hold private, individual meaning. Develop personal symbols that express your own associations with a specific day. It can be a day of the week, or a date that has special significance for you. Like Smith, the symbols you create can be personal and need not have an apparent interpretation for all who view them.
  Visual Arts


• Layering sketches on tracing paper is a technique that can be used to create an abstract symbol with personal meaning. Have multiple sheets of tracing paper available. Begin by drawing a symbol for each of the following: a noun, for instance: chair/tree/house/car/animal; a verb, for instance: thrust/shut/collapse/swing/melt; an adjective, for instance: turbulent/sharp/lively/deep/hollow.
  
  When your drawings are completed, layer them, like a sandwich, and add a top sheet of tracing paper. Select, modify, emphasize, and revise your symbol into one that includes aspects of each preliminary drawing. Your top drawing will be a new personal symbol created by synthesizing three symbols into one.
  Visual Arts


• In her book on David Smith, author Karen Wilkin states, “Just as the child who draws a landscape or outer-space battle inhabits that scene as he creates it, so Smith seems to have inhabited and animated the forms he was inventing.” Have you ever created or encountered a work of art that has made you feel as though you have become part of it? Describe the work and your experience of it.
  Visual Arts