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“David Smith: A Centennial” at the Guggenheim Museum
In February there starts an exhibition “David Smith: A Centennial” at the Guggenheim Museum. David Smith (1906–1965) was a famous sculptor, whose Cubi XXVIII became the most expensive contemporary artwork ever sold at auction. The exhibition contains several celebrated photographs of the artist’s farm at Bolton Landing, New York, where, in the meadows around his home, he arranged dozens of his own sculptures. These wonderful photographs of Bolton Landing inevitably create, in the mind’s eye, an ideal setting for Smith’s work—one the sculptor himself fashioned. Unfortunately, no museum or gallery setting can possibly reproduce that setting. But curators can learn from the photographs what to emphasize in Smith’s art. In this regard, the show at the Guggenheim, which has been organized by Carmen Giménez, is exemplary—a masterpiece of sensitive installation.
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