Fifteen Planes

1957-58

American, 1906-1965

The main themes of Smith's sculptural output are landscape, the figure, and geometric abstraction--and this work combines all three. Fifteen Planes was among his first sculptures fabricated entirely of stainless-steel, a material he favored for outdoor installations and to better reflect light, suggest depth, and bring lightness to his forms. In both material and composition, it anticipates Smith's final, most famous series of sculptures, called "Cubi."

Polished stainless steel

113 3/4 x 59 1/16 x 16 in. (289 x 150 x 40.7 cm)

Gift of the Virginia Wright Fund

74.1

Provenance: Artist's collection, Bolton Landing; [Marlborough Gallery, Inc., New York, New York]; Harry W. Anderson, Menlo Park, California, April 1, 1969; Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright, Seattle, Washington, 1970

Photo: Paul Macapia

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistoryVenice, Italy, XXIX Biennale di Venezia, Lipton, Rothko, Smith & Tobey (U.S. Representation), June - Oct., 1958. Exh. cat.

New York, New York, Museum of Modern Art, Recent Sculpture, U.S.A., May 13-Aug. 16, 1959 (Denver, Colorado, Denver Art Museum, Oct. 16 - Nov. 22, 1959; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Feb. 22 - Apr. 3, 1960; St. Louis, Missouri, City Art Museum of St. Louis, May 3 - June 12, 1960; Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts, Sept. 14 - Oct. 16, 1960).

New York, New York, Guggenheim Museum, David Smith, Mar. 29 - May 11, 1969 (Dallas, Texas, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, June - Sept., 1969; Washington, D.C., The Corcoran Gallery, Oct. - Nov., 1969. Text by Edward T. Fry. Cat. no. 62, pp. 104-5, pl. 62.

Bellingham, Washington, Western Gallery, Western Washington State College, Contemporary Sculpture from Northwest Collections, Mar. 2 -19, 1971. Exh. brochure, centerfold, reproduced cover.

Santa Barbara, California, The Art Galleries, University of California Santa Barbara, 7+5: Sculptors of the 1950s, Jan. 6 - Feb. 15, 1976 (Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix Art Museum, Mar. 5 - Apr. 11, 1976). Text by Phyllis Plous, p. 96, pl. 59.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, N.Y. Abstractions, Oct. 13 - Nov. 27, 1983.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, American Sculpture: Three Decades, Nov. 15, 1984 - Jan. 27, 1985. Reproduced p. 2 and back cover.

Düsseldorf, Germany, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, David Smith: Sculpture and Drawings, March 14 - April 27, 1986 (Frankfurt, Germany, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, June 19 - Sept. 28, 1986; London, England, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Nov. 7, 1986 - Jan. 4, 1987). Text by Jörn Merkert. Cat. no. 30, p. 173, reproduced p. 80.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Collection Highlights: 1945 To The Present, Sept. 12, 1996 - June 1, 1997.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection of Modern Art, Mar. 4 - May 5, 1999.

Bellingham, Washington, Western Gallery, Western Washington University, Decades of Giving: Virginia Wright and Sculpture at Western, Sept. 27 - Oct. 13, 1999.

Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Crossroads of American Sculpture, Oct. 14, 2000 - Jan. 21, 2001.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, International Abstraction: Making Painting Real, Part II, Aug. 15 2003 - Feb. 29, 2004.

Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, David Smith: Cubes and Anarchy, Apr. 3 - July 24, 2011 (New York, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, Oct. 11, 2011 - Jan. 8, 2012; Columbus, Ohio, Wexner Center for the Arts, Jan. 28 - Apr. 15, 2012). Text by Carol S. Eliel, p. 147, reproduced p. 126.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Big Picture: Art After 1945, July 23, 2016 - May 16, 2021 [on view July 23, 2016 - July 31, 2018].

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, City of Tomorrow: Jinny Wright and the Art That Shaped a New Seattle, Oct. 23, 2020 - Jan. 18, 2021.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics, Dec. 22, 2022 - ongoing [on view Dec. 22, 2022 - June 11, 2023].

Published ReferencesVorhees, John. "Fifteen Planes joins Art Museum family," in The Seattle Times, June 14, 1972

McCoy, Garnett, ed. David Smith, from the Documentary Monographs in Modern Art series. New York: Praeger, 1973, ill. no. 60

Krauss, Rosalind E. The Sculpture of David Smith: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York & London: Garland, 1977; p. 83, no. 446.

Fry, Edward F. David Smith, painter, sculptor, draftsman. New York : G. Braziller ; Washington, D.C. : Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institute, 1982, p. 38

Marcus, Stanley E. David Smith: The Sculptor and His Work. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1983, p. 164, reproduced p. 166

Selected Works. Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1991, p. 123

Liberal Education Magazine, Nov/Dec 1992 Issue, published by the Association of American Colleges, Inc.

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