The ''Cubi'' series is a group of stainless steel sculptures built from cubes, rectangular solids and cylinders with spheroidal or flat endcaps. These pieces are among the last works completed by the sculptor David Smith. The artist died in a car accident on May 23, 1965, soon after the completion of ''Cubi XXVIII'', which may or may not have been the last sculpture he intended to create in this series. The ''Cubis'' are among Smith's final experiments in his progression toward a more simplified, abstract form of expression. As an example of

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

, these are representative of the monumental works in industrial materials that characterized much of the sculpture from this period. Although the ''Cubis'' are abstract works composed of geometric shapes, they are ambiguously figural. For example, the pictured ''Cubi VI'' appears to be standing on a pair of crossed legs. Like many of the

abstract expressionists Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

, Smith possessed the ability to easily switch between an abstract and figurative style of working. His process also involved going back and forth between the different stages of development within a certain style or serial group, as suggested by the ''Cubis''. These sculptures were not completed in the order in which they are numbered, as revealed by the inscriptions (see below) that Smith welded onto the base of each.Rosalind E. Krauss, ''The Sculpture of David Smith: A Catalogue Raisonne'', 1977. Today, the majority of the ''Cubi'' works are part of well-known museum collections around the world, including the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York, the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

in London and the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

. In 2005, ''Cubi XXVIII'' was sold at

Sotheby's Sotheby's ( ) is a British-founded multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine art, fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, an ...

for $23.8 million, breaking a record for the most expensive piece of contemporary art ever sold at auction. "This exceedingly rare work was the pinnacle of a four-decade career," said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide head of contemporary art and the auctioneer for the evening. * ''Cubi I'' March 4, 1963 * ''Cubi II'' October 25, 1962 * ''Cubi III'' November 10, 1961 * ''Cubi IV'' January 17, 1963 * ''Cubi V'' January 16, 1963 * ''Cubi VI'' March 21, 1963 * ''

Cubi VII ''Cubi VII'' is a sculpture by David Smith in the Art Institute of Chicago North Stanley McCormick Memorial Court (aka North Garden) north of the Art Institute of Chicago Building in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. It is a sta ...

'' March 28, 1963 * ''Cubi VIII'' December 24, 1962 * ''Cubi IX'' October 26, 1961 * ''Cubi X'' April 4,1963 * ''

Cubi XI ''Cubi XI'' is an abstract sculpture by David Smith. It is a part of the ''Cubi'' series of sculptures. Constructed in 1963, it was installed on April 21, 1964, at 1875 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. near Sheridan Circle. It is in the National Gall ...

'' March 30, 1963 * ''

Cubi XII ''Cubi XII'' is an abstract sculpture by David Smith. Constructed of stainless steel, completed on April 7 1963, it was purchased from his estate by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in 1968. It is a part of the ''Cubi The ''Cubi'' ...

'' April 7, 1963 * ''Cubi XIII'' March 25, 1963 * ''Cubi XIV'' September 25, 1963 * ''

Cubi XV ''Cubi XV'' is an abstract stainless steel sculpture by David Smith. It is part of collection of the San Diego Museum of Art, and installed in Balboa Park's May S. Marcy Sculpture Garden. The statue is part of Smith's ''Cubi The ''Cubi'' ser ...

'' September 27, 1963 * ''Cubi XVI'' November 4, 1963 * ''Cubi XVII'' December 4, 1963 * ''Cubi XVIII'' February 14, 1964 * ''Cubi XIX'' February 20, 1964 * ''Cubi XX'' February 20, 1964 * ''Cubi XXI'' April 4, 1964 * ''Cubi XXII'' June 5, 1964 * ''Cubi XXIII'' November 30, 1964 * ''Cubi XXIV'' December 8, 1964 * ''Cubi XXV'' January 9, 1965 * ''

Cubi XXVI ''Cubi XXVI'' is an abstract sculpture by David Smith, in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., US. Constructed of stainless steel on January 12, 1965, it was purchased in 1978. It was on loan to the White House. The ...

'' January 12, 1965 * ''Cubi XXVII'' March 5, 1965 * ''Cubi XXVIII'' May 5, 1965

References

*Carmean, E. A. ''David Smith.'' Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1982. *Hamill, Sarah. ''David Smith: Works, Writings, Interview.'' Barcelona: Ediciones Poliígrafa, 2011. *Kramer, Hilton. “A Critic Calls David Smith ‘Greatest of All American Artists.’” ''New York Times Magazine'', February 16, 1969, 40-62. *Krauss, Rosalind E. ''Terminal Iron Works: The Sculpture of David Smith.'' Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1971.

External links

''Cubi I''
at the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

* ''Cubi II'', in a

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

''Cubi III''
at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's ori ...

''Cubi IV''
at the

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (also referred to as MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection of over 34,000 works of art and gallery spaces totaling 150,000 sq. ft. (13,900 m²) make it the largest art museum in the state of Wis ...

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin * ''Cubi V'' owned by the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation
''Cubi VI''
at the

Israel Museum The Israel Museum (, ''Muze'on Yisrael'', ) is an Art museum, art and archaeology museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world's leading Encyclopedic museum, encyclopa ...

in Jerusalem, Israel
''Cubi VII''
at the

, Chicago, Illinois
''Cubi VIII''
at the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
''Cubi IX''
at the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

in Minneapolis, Minnesota
''Cubi X''
at the

in New York, New York
''Cubi XI''
owned by the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz Foundation, on display at the

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...

in Washington, D.C.
''Cubi XII''
at the

Hirshhorn Museum The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed ...

in Washington, D.C.
''Cubi XIII''
at the

Princeton University Art Museum The Princeton University Art Museum (PUAM) is the Princeton University gallery of art, located in Princeton, New Jersey. With a collecting history that began in 1755, the museum was formally established in 1882, and now houses over 117,000 work ...

, in Princeton, New Jersey
''Cubi XIV''
at the

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

in St. Louis, Missouri
''Cubi XV''
at the

San Diego Museum of Art The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine art museum in Balboa Park in San Diego, California, that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. It opened as the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego on February 28, 1926, and changed ...

in San Diego, California
''Cubi XVI''
at the

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

, Buffalo, New York
''Cubi XVII''
at the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the A ...

''Cubi XVIII''
at the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

''Cubi XIX''
at the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

''Cubi XX''
at the Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden
''Cubi XXI''
at the

Storm King Art Center Storm King Art Center, commonly called Storm King and named for nearby Storm King Mountain, is an open-air museum in New Windsor, New York. It contains perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the United States. F ...

owned by the Lipman Family Foundation
''Cubi XXII''
at the

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is an art museum in New Haven, Connecticut. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University. Although it embraces all cultures and period ...

''Cubi XXIII''
at the Los Angeles County Museum
''Cubi XXIV''
at the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art is an art museum in the Oakland (Pittsburgh), Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum was originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was formerly located ...

, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
''Cubi XXV''
owned by Jane Lang Davis

at the

in Washington, D.C.
''Cubi XXVII''
at the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...

''Cubi XXVIII''
purchased at auction in 2005 by

Eli Broad Eli Broad ( ; June 6, 1933April 30, 2021) was an American businessman and philanthropist. In June 2019, ''Forbes'' ranked him as the 233rd-wealthiest person in the world and the 78th-wealthiest in the United States, with an estimated net worth of ...

{{David Smith (sculptor) 1963 sculptures 1964 sculptures 1965 sculptures Abstract sculpture Cubic sculpture Modernist sculpture Sculpture series Sculptures by David Smith Steel sculptures