Drawings by David Smith: A Selection by Alain Kirili

Chapelle des Petits-Augustins

18 March 2003 - 27 April 2003

Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts
14 rue Bonaparte, 75006 Paris (Exhibition hall: 13 quai Malaquais, 75006 Paris)
Tel : 01 47 03 50 00
Fax : 01 47 03 50 80
http://www.ensba.fr
Metro: Saint-Germain des Prés
Bus lines: 24 - 27 - 39 - 63 - 70 - 86 - 87 - 95 - 96
Open all week except Mondays, from 1:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Admission-- Adults: EUR 4, Children under 10: EUR 2

           The Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, is pleased to present the first major exhibition in France of drawings by one of the most important artists of the twentieth century: the American sculptor, painter and draftsman David Smith (1906-1965). Comprised of 71 works in ink and spray enamel on paper and canvas dating from 1951 to 1964, the exhibition illustrates Smith's dedication to drawing as an autonomous art form. "Drawing," he wrote, "is the most direct, closest to the true self [.] the life force of the artist." He also described it as "a fast moving search" that balanced the physical labor required to making his sculptures.

           Although Smith's drawings were regularly exhibited during his lifetime, they have received relatively little attention, especially in Europe, since his death. In France, with the exception of an untitled 1952 drawing included in Cinquante ans de dessins américains, 1930-1980 ("Fifty years of American Drawing") at the Ecole nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in 1985 and a selection of primarily figurative works on paper and canvas presented at Galerie Piltzer in 1995, Smith is known by his sculptures, which were featured in Qu'est-ce que la sculpture moderne ? ("What is Modern Sculpture ?") at the Pompidou Centre in 1986. Currently, visitors to Paris's Tuileries Gardens can view Smith's monumental bronze and painted stainless steel sculpture, Primo Piano II, 1962, where it is on long-term display.

           The forthcoming exhibition of Smith's works at the Ecole is due to the initiative of the French sculptor Alain Kirili, who lives and works in Paris and New York. (Already, in June 2000, Kirili had rendered homage to Smith by including Primo Piano II in an exhibition of 20th century sculpture he organized for the Tuileries). Kirili is interested in confronting his own works with those by other artists, as evinced, notably, in the exhibitions he has conceived as "dialogues" with Rodin in 1999, and with Carpeaux, at the Musée des beaux-arts de Valenciennes, in 2002. So, too, now with David Smith, in whose company Kirili will present an ensemble of 5 sculptures in steel entitled Communion 2001, in the space of the Chapelle des Petits-Augustins.

           The forthcoming exhibition of drawings by David Smith's selected by Alain Kirili is the latest in an exceptional series of events conceived especially for this unique space in Paris. It follows La Bella Maniera, an exhibition that proposed a dialogue between Georg Baselitz's collection of Mannerist engravings and those in the collection of the Ecole des beaux-arts (Spring 2002); La Lune à l'Ecole, Jana Sterbak's installation of a constellation of glass moons in the nave of the Chapelle (Autumn 2002); Les Ikônes de Sarkis, a confrontation between the iconostasis-like presentation of Sarkis's watercolours (his "ikons") and the formerly consecrated and later secularised space of the Chapelle housing a gallery of sculptures; and a performance conceived by Franz West as a meditation on Narcissus that deployed music and mirrored tables produced in a limited edition by the Gallery de-di-bY.

           A French-language catalogue, Les Dessins de David Smith: Un Choix d'Alain Kirili, accompanies the forthcoming exhibition. It includes a preface by Henry-Claude Cousseau, director of the Ecole des beaux-arts, and essays by Alain Kirili; the artist, critic and art-historian Robert Storr, and David Smith's daughter, Candida Smith. Format: 16.5 x 22.5 cm, 136 pages, with reproductions of all the drawings by David Smith and the sculptures by Alain Kirili presented in the exhibition. Price: 20 £