Tony Smith

1
Tony Smith

• Joshua Li
• Per. 6
• Sculptures

2
Biography Information

• He was taken care of by a private nurse and so he
  spent his time building models from small
  medicine boxes.
• Graduated from a private Jesuit high school in
  1930
• Took art classes at Art Students League
• Worked for Frank Lloyd Wright in 1930s
• Married actress/opera singer Jane Lawrence
• He died in 1980

• Born in 1912 in South Orange, New Jersey
• Lived in a prosperous Irish Catholic family
• He suffered from tuberculosis and was isolated
  in a one room building behind the house so that
  it would not spread to his six siblings.

3
Art Work

• Called the Wandering
• Rocks
• Located in the National
• Gallery of Art East Building
• Lawn
• He was influenced by the
• traditional Japanese
• gardens and ancient stone
• ruins.

4
Art Work continued..

• She Who Must Be
• Obeyed
• Made in 1975

5
More Art Work

• Called to The Keys To.
• Given!
• Made in 1965
• Put with the Wall at
• the entrance of The
• Economic Plaza at St.
• Jamess Street

6
More

• Called Wall
• Made in 1964
• 18 feet long wall
• Is located at the
• Entrance of the
• Economic Plaza at
• St. Jamess Street

7
Continued

• Called Moondog
• Model in 1964
• Fabricated in 1998-1999
• Made of 15 extended
• Octahedrons and 10
• Tetrahedrons interlocked
• together

8
Last Piece of Artwork

• Called Free Ride
• Made in 1962 and refabricated
• in 1982
• Museum of Modern Art

9
Timeline
Went to Art Students League in 1933
Born in 1912.
Returned to New Jersey to teach at Hunter,
Bennington in 1955.
Died in 1980.
Took architecture courses at New Bauhaus School
in Chicago in 1937.
Finished his first major piece (sculpture) in
1957.
Got an apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright in
1938.
Opened his own architectural firm in 1940.
Developed tuberculosis at age 4 (1916).
First had his work shown at Museum of Modern
Art in N.Y. in 1966.
Recovered from tuberculosis in 1926.
Graduated from a private Jesuit high school in
1930

• 1912
  1946
  1980
  
  
  

Great Depression started in 1929
(time period).
10
Quotes

• I dont have any sense of how a piece is going
  to turn out, or even flit is going to turn out,
  until the end. - Smith
• First we feel, then we fall. - Joyce wrote in
  Finnegans Wake.
• Nature, in mourning, seemed to offer itself to
  my gaze. - Smith
• It does not seem possible to me to conceive of
  anything sadder than a monument composed of a
  flat surface, bare and stripped, made of a
  material that absorbs the light, absolutely
  devoid of details and whose decoration is formed
  by a tableau of shadows outlined by stiller
  darker shadows. - Smith

11
Materials and Technique

• He is an architect, painter, sculptor, and a
  teacher so he has used a wide range of materials.
• The artwork that he is most famous for is
  sculpture.
• He uses a lot of metals for his sculptures such
  as aluminum for the Moondog.
• He also uses bronze and steel.
• His sculptures are geometrically shaped and have
  a uniform color throughout. The sculptures seem
  very basic at first glance, but they are formed
  with abstract ideas.

12
Website sources

• http//www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0268/is
  _3_37/ai_53286429
• Time magazine - Sculptor Tony Smith Art Outgrows
  the Museum - Oct. 13, 1967
• www.artsonthepoint.com/smith_tony/smith.html
• www.artrepublic.com/Posters/biography/
  biography.asp?artistSmithnameTony