Conversations About Art With Dad

During the Spring semester this year I was taking a Western Art History class and one of the papers required was an exhibit critique. The professor gave a list of options at local museums but we were allowed to choose freely among that list. I had not paid much attention to what exhibits I would be visiting, only knowing I’d visit all three available to us at the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) when I went and would make up my mind upon seeing them. So I was not prepared when I spent most of my visit overwhelmed and close to tears.

The first exhibit I visited was the David Smith: Cubes & Anarchy solo exhibit that had opened in early April in the new Resnick Pavilion. David Smith is often considered one of the most important sculptors of his generation and the exhibit was the first of this size of his work since his memorial exhibit in the mid-60’s. David Smith was interested in Geometric Constructivism and part of the Constructed Sculpture movement beginning in Surrealism and traveling into Abstract Expressionism. The exhibits focus was on his life-long fascination and exploration with geometric shapes as well as affiliation and representation of socialist ideals. Regardless of Smith’s accomplishments – the exhibit was like walking into an entire room full of my own father’s sculptures.

I am certain anyone watching me thought I was a super hard core Smith fan with my immediate intake of breath upon entering the pavilion, how I just stood unable to move for several minutes as I took in the room my eyes fill with tears. I was overwhelmed but gradually got it together enough to start through the room. I was there for school after all, so I took notes and pictures of every piece.

I was extremely touched and very emotional viewing Smith’s work, but also critical of some pieces where I saw sloppy welding and other flaws, not knowing if they were truly intentional or not. It was as if my father were at my side pointing out those nuances just as if he would have in person. After a lifetime of playing in his workshops and learning both by direct instruction and by osmosis how to recognize skilled welding when I saw it I could hear his voice throughout the room, his praise and critique of each peace. It was the longest conversation I’ve had with my father since his death. I longed to touch each piece, run my hands down their sides, both rough and smooth.

Later, when I read up more on Smith’s like I learned that beyond the art itself, the two men had many parallels, the varied but “of the people” art forms they pursued (Smith and my father were also both photographers). Dad was a welder his entire life and began his career working in a both jewelry design and later a sheet metal shop and making steel or iron sculptures on the side, the full extent of which I did not learn until after he had died. He was a teenager in the 60’s and 70’s and I realize he must have been influenced by both Julio Gonzalez but particularly David Smith since he worked so much with stainless steel late in his life. Even Smith’s earlier smaller scale work resembles Dad’s early works.

I thought the exhibit was impressive and was surprised none like it had been put together before except for one memorial show shortly after Smith’s death in the 60’s. I particularly enjoyed his notebooks and paintings. It is always fascinating to me to be able to somewhat see into the artists brain and how they work out concepts and bring them to life. I loved how he signed his pieces and the exact dates placed on them, as well as the secret messages to his daughters and wife. I photographed every single metal piece wishing there was some way to send them to my father, desperate for a way to call him to tell him about this experience. While Cubism is not my personal favorite, it is something I will always be nostalgic for because of the connection to my father.

My only disappointment of the show is that I would have liked to have seen the larger metal Cubi series outside as they are meant to be viewed, though the gallery light was for the most part natural. This series are large steel cubes tipped on end and jetting out at odd angles, creating unique figures. The welding on them is somewhat sloppy feeling, possibly intentionally. What is clearly intentional is the rough shiny polishing of the metal, clearly smooth but they look like someone went over them with a giant Bristol pad scratching the surface into other shapes and designs, almost as if communicating something but just on the side of illegible. Though meant for outdoors, Cubi V was directly below a skylight and was almost blinding with how it shined.

The exhibit made me realize a lot, about timing, and circumstances and random chance. Had Dad's life gone different ways, would I be visiting his art in a museum? Could I still? It also made me realize that I am forever linked to my father, that I am able to converse with him still, the ways may be for subtle and fleeting, few and far between, but just as meaningful and heartfelt, as when he was truly only a phone call away.

“Art has its tradition, but it is a visual heritage. The artist’s language is the memory from sight. Art is made from dreams, and visions, and things not known, and least of all from things that can be said. It comes from the inside of who you are when you face yourself. It is an inner declaration of purpose, it is a factor which determines artist identity.” David Smith