“I try to approach each thing without following the pattern that I made with the other one. They can begin with a found object; they can begin with no object. They can begin sometimes even when I’m sweeping the floor and I stumble and kick a few parts and happen to throw them into an alignment that sets me off thinking and sets off a vision of how it would finish if it all had that kind of accidental beauty to it. I want to be like a poet, in a sense. I don’t want to seek the same orders.”

— David Smith

David Smith (1906–1965). Voltri XIX, 1962. Steel, 140.3 x 114.3 x 127 cm/. Private collection, Boston. © Estate of David Smith / Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

Early in his career Smith discovered that sculpture could come from the collected remains of nature or manufacturing. Although he incorporated coral, bones, and frying pans in his constructions, most of the found objects he used came from the worlds of industry and agriculture—two areas of life with which he strongly identified. Smith frequently transformed his found objects in a way that completely disguised their previous use, so that they lost their original identity and became another neutral element in the completed sculpture.

In 1962 Smith was invited to spend thirty days making sculpture at an abandoned steel factory in Voltri, Italy. It was the ideal working arrangement for him: the factory setting, a large supply of scrap steel, and a group of assistants. Smith made twenty-seven sculptures in thirty days. At the end of his time in Voltri, Smith had a large amount of the scrap materials shipped back home. His next series, the Voltri-Boltons (or Voltrons or VBs) were works made back at his Bolton Landing home using the steel and found objects from the stockpiles of Italian factory materials that he kept adjacent to his studio.

Some of the most radically new Voltri images are the workbench still lifes that use found objects in a more literal way than at any other time in his career. Tools, tongs, and the stuff of the factory are placed on workbenches, exactly where you would expect to find them. The objects appear neither to have been altered physically, nor to be transformed. But Smith also used identical elements in other works of the series, in nonliteral ways, more characteristically subordinating them to their new contexts.

• Look carefully at this sculpture. Describe it as fully as you can.
• Does it remind you of anything you have seen before? What parts of it are familiar or recognizable? Which parts are unfamiliar? Which parts seem to be least altered by the artist, which parts have been changed the most?
• Smith found the forms and industrial scrap materials in the factory in Voltri so appealing that he had some shipped back to his home. He was known to have said, “I kind of like rust.” What do you think he liked about these materials? Do they appeal to you? Why, why not?
• In what ways is Voltri XIX similar to traditional still-life subjects? In what way is it different?
• If you owned this sculpture, where and how would you display it? Why?
• What do you think the other side(s) of this work looks like?
• Voltri XIX is different from other Smith sculptures in that it seems more grounded in reality and recognizable than many of his other works. Compare it to another sculpture in this guide, or in the exhibition. Which do you prefer? Why?

• Assemble a collection of objects that appeal to you and lay them out on a table. Do you notice qualities that they have in common? What are they? What are their differences? Are you aware of why these particular objects are of interest to you? Do these objects have any personal connotations or histories that we could not know without you telling us? Write down a list of adjectives that could be used to describe their qualities. Compare both the objects you have collected and adjectives with your classmates.
  English / Language Arts


• Artists have created art from materials as diverse and unusual as live ants, dead flies, Vaseline, pills, car fenders, lightbulbs, and the discarded tires from cars. Research an artist who has made work from an unusual material. What about the material was of interest to the artist? Describe your response to their work.
  Technology


• Create your own found object sculpture. Describe your process. Did you run into any problems as you progressed? What were they? How did you solve them? Did you choose to have the found material recognizable or seamlessly incorporated into the rest of the work? How did you connect the materials? In what ways is your found-object sculpture successful? Are there things that you might change?
  Visual Arts


• In 1950 Smith wrote this poem:
  
  

  There is something rather noble about junk—selected junk—
  junk which has in one era performed nobly in function for
  common man—
  has by function been formed by the smithy’s hand alone
  and without bearings roll or bell
  has fulfilled its function, stayed behind,
  is not yet relic or antique or precious
  which has been seen by the eyes of all men and left for me—
  to be found as the cracks in sidewalks
  as the grain in wood
  as the drops in grass
  out of snow hummock
  as the dent in mud from
  a bucket of poured storms
  as the clouds float and
  as beauties come
  to be used, for an order
  to be arranged
  to be now perceived
  by new ownership

  
  
  What is your reaction to this poem? What are your own associations with “junk”? Write a poem that focuses on an inanimate subject with which you have developed a close and unique affinity.
  English / Language Arts