VAM galleries including this work:
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Tony Smith brought to sculpture his experience as tool and die maker, draftsman, painter, construction site supervisor, apprentice to architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and college teacher of design. He wanted his sculpture to serve as a springboard for the imagination, creating configurations of geometric shapes—rhomboids, tetrahedrons, and octahedrons—designed to generate an infinite number of associations, varying with the experiences of each viewer. Smith believed his sculpture to be “speculations in pure form,” but they also reflect an intense interest in myth and the creative powers of the subconscious mind.

Gracehoper’s black steel sheathing and triangular limbs suggest the greatest feats of contemporary engineering, but at the same time evoke images of a lumbering, prehistoric being. The work changes dramatically from every viewing angle because of its great scale and complexity. Somehow, it appears both animated and static, particularly as the viewer walks around it.

The title Gracehoper was derived from a line written by Irish writer James Joyce: “The silly billy of a Gracehoper had jingled through a jungle of love and debts and jangled through a jumble of life in doubts afterworse.” Joyce’s whimsical prose matches Smith’s ambition for his sculpture to be a powerful visual metaphor for which each viewer must invent his own meaning.

About the Artist

Tony Smith was born in South Orange, New Jersey, in 1912. He developed tuberculosis at the age of 4 and was kept in virtual isolation in a one-room house in the backyard until he recovered—some ten years later. After graduating from a Jesuit high school in New York City, Smith dropped out of college to work at his father’s manufacturing company as a toolmaker, draftsman, and purchasing agent, all the while studying art part-time. In 1937, he enrolled in the New Bauhaus School in Chicago to study architecture, but grew discontented and soon returned home. The following year, he secured an apprenticeship with premier American architect Frank Lloyd Wright—an experience that provided him both the knowledge and the contacts to open his own architectural firm in 1940.

Once he had established himself, Smith lived and traveled with his wife, opera singer Jane Lawrence, while teaching and designing. In 1955, he settled back in New Jersey, where he taught at Hunter and Bennington colleges and Princeton University. Smith became increasingly interested in sculpture and mounted his first exhibition of three-dimensional works at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966. Today, his sculptures are found in the collections of art museums throughout the world.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: What shapes can you identify in this sculpture? Can you see how geometry plays a part in Smith’s planning for his sculptures? Why do you think the artist chose to use only one color for this sculpture? What is the effect of this color choice? Why do you think the artist chose to call the sculpture Gracehoper?

Many cities, parks, and public buildings are the sites of public sculpture. Public response can vary from appreciation to puzzlement to anger, depending on the content and style of the work. Sometimes public money is used to fund these works. What do you think public art adds to a community? Can you think of cities or parks where public art has had a positive impact? Debate the merits of public funding.

Activities: Find objects in geometrical shapes, such as boxes, cans, blocks, etc. Place the objects in different configurations, stacking them freely or gluing them together. Create an interesting composition that displays as many different shapes as possible.

Links

View available works by Tony Smith at Artnet. There you can also read Tony Smith: Architect, Painter, Sculptor, an article from the Artnet magazine.
[www.artnet.com/ag/fineartthumbnails.asp?aid=15768]
[www.artnet.com/magazine_pre2000/features/tuchman/tuchman7-14-98.asp]

Read more about Smith and 20th-century sculpture in Art and Anarchy at Midcentury, an essay by Christopher Benfey from Slate magazine.
[slate.msn.com/id/2928/]

A biography, images, and current exhibitions of Smith’s work can be found at the University of Massachusetts Arts on the Point Sculpture Park web site.
[www.artsonthepoint.com/smith_tony/stinger.html]