Smith, David (Roland) (1906–1965)

US sculptor and painter. His large openwork metal abstracts made a lasting impact on sculpture after 1945. Cubi XXVII (1965; Guggenheim Museum, New York) is typical of his late work.

Smith trained as a steel welder in a car factory. He turned first to painting and then, about 1930, to sculpture. By the 1950s he was creating linear abstract structures, influenced by the metal sculptures of Pablo Picasso and Julio González, such as Australia 1951 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). The Cubi series of totemlike abstracts, composed of simple, three-dimensional geometrical forms, highly polished or painted, was designed to be placed in the open air.