Nasher Sculpture Center

In The Forest, David Smith created a whimsical nature scene from bits of steel and found objects. Commercially made saw-toothed implements are welded back-to-back to suggest foliage, and numerous little bird-like forms are appended to the treetops. At the lower right, a raised horizontal element supporting smaller vertical shapes suggests another group of plants and echoes the larger composition of the four tree-like forms. On the left, a teardrop-shaped figure with long spindly limbs wraps itself around the trunks and branches of the trees. The painted surface and frontal, rectangular format of The Forest are characteristics typically associated with painting and drawing. Smith's strongly pictorial approach creates an animating tension between surface and depth, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional form.