Beach Scene

David Smith found inspiration for his early work in the Surrealist sculptures of Alberto Giacometti and Hans Arp, as well as the paintings of Arshile Gorky and Joan Miró. Among the first American artists to master the use of steel and other industrial materials, Smith worked as a welder at a Studebaker automobile plant, where he gained firsthand experience with metal. He made Beach Scene early in his career, at a time when he was interested in organic forms and an unplanned, autonomous approach to art making: “I do not work with a conscious and specific conviction about a piece of sculpture,” he explained. “It is always open to change and a new association.”