Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 14

David Smith
Untitled

1930

$300,000
£230,371.18
€264,272
CA$421,535.20
A$472,092.82
CHF 246,330.31
MX$5,766,410.88
NOK 3,134,038.23
SEK 2,954,206.62
DKK 1,972,229.67

About the Item

"Untitled" is a painting by American artist David Smith. David Smith’s paintings from the 1930s rarely come to market, and when Untitled (Billiard Players) surfaced at a Christie’s auction in 2018, it created quite a stir, realizing an impressive price of $1.15 million. Painted around the same time, Untitled shares many similarities with Untitled (Billiard Players). Both paintings affirm Smith’s place among the American artists when ideas and style began to intermingle and coalesce around Picasso’s innovations. Uniquely positioned in temperament and ability, Smith was a man of considerable ambition whose direct-metal configurations would have much to do with achieving new ideas about abstraction. Yet all along, he insisted he was a painter, not a sculptor who painted. Paintings by Smith support Henry Moore’s assertion that ‘all the best sculpture I know is both abstract and representational at the same time.’ Surrealism held great sway with both artists, but Untitled has little in common with the phantom dreamscapes or spectral apparitions more associated with Moore’s sensibilities. Instead, Smith’s work recalls Picasso’s whimsical depictions of halcyon days he spent frolicking at the beach with his wife Olga and son Paulo in the summer of 1928. Full of wit and humor, Untitled suggests some of that same lightheartedness. David Smith and his wife, artist Dorothy Dehner, took their first trip to Europe in 1936, and if there is a story worth retelling here, perhaps it is similarly anecdotal. Charming as it is, Untitled encourages musings of an encounter while biking in France with, presumably, a female figure whose hand rests upon David’s shoulder as well as the image of a child or dog held by our protagonist — take your pick. Provenance: Estate of David Smith Hauser & Wirth Private Collection Exhibition: Hauser & Wirth New York, “David Smith: Origins & Innovations”, New York NY, November 13 – December 23, 2017
  • Creator:
    David Smith (1906-1965, American)
  • Creation Year:
    1930
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 12 in (30.48 cm)Width: 15.75 in (40.01 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Palm Desert, CA
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: 409961stDibs: LU9310578902

More From This Seller

View All
Untitled
By David Smith
Located in Palm Desert, CA
"Untitled" is a painting by artist David Smith. The work is signed and dated in the upper left "David Smith (symbol) 1936". When David Smith set up a workshop on the Brooklyn Navy Pier in 1933 to learn direct-metal techniques, he shared the space not with artists, but with professional welders. Yet as he stated in 1964, ‘…all my early friends were painters…I never conceived of myself as anything other than a painter because my work came straight through the raised surface.’ Picasso and Cubism would be dominant influences in Smith’s work. He understood that Picasso imagined the world as a sculptor might, and not necessarily limited to the unavoidable impact of Cubism. In addition to pursuing a kind of rethinking of the world in three-dimensionality on his own terms, by the late 1920s, Picasso had shown interest in surrealism. That meant drawing not as a depiction of reality, but rather as a reconfiguration of the body in an assemblage of often precariously balanced, interconnected forms — some expressed in a three-dimensional form, others as drawings or paintings. Those processes are reflected in this work by David Smith; three fanciful totemic assemblages set within a landscape perspective of ground, mountains, and sky and whose presence is surreal enough to cast shadows under a presumed solar presence. Untitled, 1936 embraces surrealism, yet also serves to demonstrate the extent to which his thought processes are inextricably linked to sculpture and related to scale, spatial orientation, and three-dimensionality. With that in mind, it is not surprising to know that Smith saw no demarcation between sculpture and painting, or that a painting such as Untitled (1936) can exist outside of planning or design for future three-dimensional work. Provenance: Estate of David Smith, New York Hauser & Wirth Private Collection Exhibition: Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, ‘David Smith: Skulptureen, Zeichnungen [David Smith: Sculpture and Drawings]’ Dusseldorf/DE, March 14 – April 27, 1986 (travelled to: Städtische Galerie im Stäelschen Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt/DE, June 19 – September 28, 1986: Whitechapel Art Gallery...
Category

1930s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
By Robert Marc
Located in Palm Desert, CA
An abstract oil on canvas by Post War artist Robert Marc. Signed lower right, "Robert Marc." Provenance: Estate of the artist; Forum Gallery, New York; Barry Friedman Ltd., New York. Exhibition: London, Alon Zakaim...
Category

1980s Modern Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
By Thomas Nozkowski
Located in Palm Desert, CA
An abstract, oil on linen on panel painting executed in bright oranges, blues and dark tans and browns by Post War artist Thomas Nozkowski. Signed verso, "Thomas Nozkowski." Nozk...
Category

1990s Post-War Abstract Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil, Panel

Untitled
$44,000 Sale Price
48% Off
Untitled
By Francisco Toledo
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A mixed media on paper work by Latin American artist Francisco Toledo. Executed mainly in white and ochre, with red and blue, the work depicts two abstracted faces. Signed lower midd...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media

Untitled
By Christian Rosa
Located in Palm Desert, CA
An abstract oil on canvas by Brazilian contemporary artist Christian Rosa. This large format, untitled oil is executed in bright yellow, black, red and blue in a subdued, neutral pal...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled
$24,000 Sale Price
70% Off
Untitled
By Carl Morris
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A painting by Carl Morris. This Untitled, abstract, acrylic on canvas painting is executed in a deep and lush palette of orange reds, blues, white and browns by Post War artist Carl ...
Category

1980s Post-War Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

You May Also Like

Untitled
Located in Vancouver, CA
Ron Stonier (1933-2001) was a dedicated Vancouver artist celebrated for his exploration of abstract painting, influenced by his mentors Gordon Smith and Jack Shadbolt, as well as by ...
Category

1960s Abstract Geometric Abstract Paintings

Materials

Paper, Oil, Board

Untitled
Located in Buffalo, NY
An unsigned mid century modern American abstract painting
Category

1950s American Modern Abstract Paintings

Materials

Board, Illustration Board, Oil

Table de Miro
By Robert McIntosh
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Just discovered within the archives of American artist Robert McIntosh(1916-2010), we present for the first time, a magnificent mixed media painting, Table de Miro. Table de Miro, i...
Category

1940s Cubist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Untitled
By Alexandre Charriol
Located in Beverly Hills, CA
Provenance: The artist Karl Hutter Fine Art, Beverly Hills
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Crayon, Oil

Untitled
$4,500 Sale Price
25% Off
"Three Friends"
By Robert McIntosh
Located in West Hollywood, CA
We are proud to present a recently discovered original abstract/figurative painting by American artist Robert McIntosh(1916-2010). "Three Friends" is an original mixed media painting on panel, signed, dated 1945-50, good original condition with a dimension of 12 x 10 inches, currently unframed. We are including a biography on American artist Robert McIntosh, please contact the gallery for additional information. Presenting a magnificent, early original pastel, "The Artist's Portrait", by American artist Robert McIntosh. "The Artist's Portrait", is an original pastel on artist's paper, signed, dated 1937, 13 x 9.75, currently unframed, the portrait was acquired directly from the personal collection of the artist. We have included the artist's biography below please contact the gallery for additional information, Robert McIntosh (1916-2010) Robert McIntosh was born on March 11, 1916 near San Francisco, in Vallejo, California, the second son of Harry and Jesusita Coronado McIntosh. He found his lifelong passion for painting by the time he was ten years old and never swayed from his calling. The family moved to Stockton when Robert was 12. Their home was just six blocks from the newly opened Haggin Museum, filled with a treasure trove of European and American paintings. He became particularly enamored with the fine examples of 19th century French pastoral landscapes. As teens, Robert and his brother Harrison befriended local painter Arthur Haddock who taught them the craft of art and brought them along on outdoor painting trips. Robert also became skilled at drawing portraits that captured the subject's personality. Soon, the sheer joy of expressing himself this way became a consuming interest. ​When not sketching, McIntosh would wander the stacks of books at the public library, discovering and studying the Masters - in particular, Michelangelo, Rembrandt and Whistler. At a Gauguin exhibit at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, Robert discovered a "whole new world of color" and the importance of designing the space in the eternal rectangle. "I envision a frame around everything I see, "he admitted. "The artists' challenge is to put something meaningful, interesting or beautiful in that space." ​In 1934 McIntosh won a competition for a scholarship to the Art Center School of Design, the first award they ever bestowed. The entire family moved to Los Angeles and a new vista opened to the young artist, both visually and culturally. Robert began to take on portrait commissions and had exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum of Art and the Crocker Museum of Art in Sacramento. During the Great Depression, Robert began to work at Disney Studios painting backgrounds for such classics as "Fantasia". Ron Barbagallo, of Animation Art...
Category

1940s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Tango
By Robert McIntosh
Located in West Hollywood, CA
Presenting a just discovered mixed media painting by American artist Robert McIntosh, (1916-2010.) Tango, is an original mixed media gouache o...
Category

1940s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media

Tango
Price Upon Request