“I cannot live in New York. . . . I want to live alone and far away. I want to live in nature and when I live in nature I have the most idealized concept possible.”

— David Smith

David Smith (1906–1965). Hudson River Landscape, 1951. Welded steel, 125.7 x 190.5 x 42.5 cm. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. © Estate of David Smith / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

In 1940 Smith and his wife, the painter Dorothy Dehner, permanently moved from Brooklyn to Bolton Landing in upstate New York. Smith immersed himself in nature and the land. In return the natural environment became his home, a subject for his work, a backdrop for his photographs, and eventually the site for an expansive display of his sculptures.

In 1946 Smith began a series of landscape sculptures. Although the subjects of his landscapes do not signify a specific vista, many of the works in this series reflected the tree-covered mountains of the New York Adirondacks. Strong patterns suggest the rugged terrain of this mountainous landscape.

Hudson River Landscape (1951) is considered Smith’s first mature work and demonstrates his continuing attempt to unite painting and sculpture. On several occasions Smith described the genesis of Hudson River Landscape as being the product of many drawings that he made while traveling by railroad between Albany and Poughkeepsie.

During this period Smith thought of sculpture not in traditional terms of volume and mass, but as "drawing in space." Many of these works are framed by an outside border in much the same way that a frame is used around a painting. Although made from steel, they are constructed as linear calligraphy. Their frontal alignment reminds us of their relationship to drawing and painting. They also stress the fluid movement of travel through a landscape and the free associations that the various elements can inspire. Of even greater importance to Smith than a specific place was the relationship of earth to sky, and the individual’s relationship to the universe.

• Before knowing the title of this work, spend a few minutes looking at it. Jot down any words or associations that come to mind. Make a cumulative list of these words with your classmates. Which words were used the most? The title of this work is Hudson River Landscape. Which words on your list might be used to describe a river or the land around it?
• What aspects of this work seem to relate to things you might notice from the window of a train while riding alongside a river?
• According to Smith, “Your response may not travel down the Hudson River but it may travel on any river or on a higher level. . . . I want you to travel, by perception, the path I traveled in creating it.” Explain what Smith might mean by this statement.
• Smith’s approach to work from this period is sometimes referred to as “drawing in space.” In 1952 Smith wrote, “If a sculpture could be a line drawing, then speculate that a line drawing removed from its paper bond and viewed from the side would be a beautiful thing.” In what ways is Hudson River Landscape like a drawing or painting? In what ways is it uniquely sculptural?

• The character of a “drawing in space” can be achieved by creating a sculpture in soft wire using a needle-nosed pliers (and perhaps a mallet) to bend and shape the line of wire into a sculpture. Like Smith you can use an observed or remembered landscape as inspiration, or another subject.
  Visual Arts


• According to Smith, Hudson River Landscape is not based on a single moment. Rather it is an accumulation multiple views, experiences and perceptions over time and distance. According to Smith, Hudson River Landscape started from drawings made on a train between Albany and Poughkeepsie, “a synthesis of drawings from ten trips going and coming over this 75-mile stretch. On this basis I started a drawing for a sculpture. As I began, I shook a quart bottle of India ink, it flew over my hand, it looked like my landscape. I placed my hand on paper and from the image this left I traveled with the landscape to the other landscapes and their objects, with additions, deductions, directives which flashed past too fast to tabulate, but whose elements are in the finished sculpture. No part is diminished reality, the total is a unity of symbolized reality, which to my mind is a greater reality than the river scene. Is my work Hudson River Landscape, the Hudson River, or is it the travel, the vision, the ink spot, or does it matter? The sculpture exists on its own, it is the entity. The name is an affectionate designation of the point prior to travel. My objective was not these words, or the Hudson River, but to create the existence of a sculpture. Your response may not travel down the Hudson River but it may travel on any river or on a higher level. . . . I want you to travel, by perception, the path I traveled in creating it.”
  
  Have you ever taken a train ride and looked out the window at the passing landscape? Where were you? What memories do you have of that experience? Create a narrative description, poem, or drawing that captures your recollections of that journey.
  English / Language Arts


• Think of a trip that you have taken multiple times. It can be your trip to school, a relative’s home, or a place you revisit on vacation. First, create a work that focuses on a specific day and a particular moment of a trip to this place. Then create a second work that is a synthesis of all the trips you have taken to this place and creates the “feel” of these accumulated experiences. Compare the two works. In what ways are they similar? How are they different from one to another? Which do you prefer? Why?
  Visual Arts