Oil Tanks-Gary, Ind. U.S.A.

David Smith

An "unidentified" etching signed "Smith". I personally think this may be an unknown work done by sculptor David Smith while studying with Stanley William Hayter in Paris in 1935. Smith returned to work at Atelier 17 in New York in 1941.

The David Smith Estate has said that this is definitely another printmaker named Smith and the signature is not right, for one thing it does not have his first name. Other David Smiths I have had and others on-line are similar, especially the way the "S" is formed and the slant and connection of the letters. My searches of "Smith" signatures through on-line resources have not found any other possibilities. The imagery is "crude" and very sophisticated at the same time; the floating composition, the use of the telephone lines to tie the oil tanks together and the use of the numbers 3 and 4, which would have had to be etched in reverse, indicating a knowledge of the medium. The use of the modulated sandpaper aquatint is skillful. David Smith grew up in Dacatur, Indiana, about 75 miles from Gary, the subject of this work. In 1924, after completing 2 semesters at Ohio University, he dropped out and found summer work in South Bend, about 65 miles from Gary, on an assembly line in a Studebaker factory. Any trips to nearby Chicago would have bought him through Gary. The oil tankers in Gary in those days did not fail to make a lasting impression. In my years of dealing prints and my extensive study of both American modernist and Atelier 17 printmaking I have not found another Smith whose work this might be. Any help in identifying this work will be greatly appreciated.