Roland David Smith: Abstract Expressionist Artist

Roland David Smith, born in Decatur, Indiana, in 1906, was an Abstract Expressionist sculptor and painter. He is most known for his abstract geometrical steel sculptures and considered one of the greatest American sculptors in the 20th century. His success as an artists could be clearly tied to his time spent in New York where he joined advanced Art Students League School in 1926 where he studied painting and drawing over the next five years. During that same time David married Dorothy Dehner and also became friends with successful artists like Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Milton Avery, and Adolph Gottlieb. This learning environment gave l him access to unlimited inspiration for future works and the ability to expand his talents.
Originally

David smith found a passion for painting and continued to paint in watercolor throughout his life, but around 1931-1933 he began combine 3 dimensional objects from organic materials like coral, wood and other found materials with his paintings at the encouragement of his teacher Jan Matulka. He drew inspirations from welded-metal sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio Gonzalez introduced to him by his friend and fellow artist/writer John Graham. Eventually David realized that the industrial techniques he had learned as a riveter on a frame assembly line in the Studebaker automobile plant could be applied to art. He then was able to create a studio by renting out space in a Brooklyn welding shop called Terminal Iron Works. Thus began to experiment more in working with metals and creating his first signature sculptures of abstract, organic and geometric forms, with swirling colorful brushstrokes.
In 1940, David and his wife, Dorothy permanently moved to Bolton Landing, in upstate New York. They purchases a farm and named it "Terminal Iron Works," in respect to his old Brooklyn studio. For two years he worked in a locomotive factory in order to avoid the draft but then was declared unfit for military service because of a sinus condition. So Smith quit his job to work full-time on his artwork. So through most of the 40s David Smith’s career became highly developed, with his sculptures becoming larger, more abstract, and architectural; often incorporating squares, rectangles, cylinders and circles which were made of polished stainless steel. In 1950, Smith was awarded a Guggenheim grant giving him financial stability and more free time. Finally in 1957, David was given a one man show at The Museum of Modern Art which made his artistic and professional success skyrocket from then on.