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 is both a philosophy, philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western world, Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new fo ...

, 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, 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 between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York, the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...

in London and the Art Institute of Chicago. In 2005, ''Cubi XXVIII'' was sold at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of 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 st ...

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

Cubi XI 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 ...

'' March 30, 1963 * '' Cubi XII'' April 7, 1963 * ''Cubi XIII'' March 25, 1963 * ''Cubi XIV'' September 25, 1963 * '' Cubi XV'' 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'' 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), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation and expansion project comple ...

* ''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 individu ...

''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 ...

''Cubi IV''
at the

Milwaukee Art Museum The Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its collection contains nearly 25,000 works of art. Location and Visit Located on the lakefront of Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Art Museum is one of the largest art museu ...

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin * ''Cubi V'' owned by the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation
''Cubi VI''
at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Israel
''Cubi VII''
at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
''Cubi VIII''
at the

Meadows Museum The Meadows Museum, nicknamed "Prado on the Prairie", is a two-story, 66,000 sq. ft.art museum in Dallas, Texas on the campus of Southern Methodist University (SMU). Operating as a division of SMU's Meadows School of the Arts, the museum houses one ...

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 neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, to ...

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 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., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was desi ...

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 113,000 works o ...

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

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is one of the principal U.S. art museums, with paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from all corners of the world. Its three-story building stands in Forest Park in St. Louis, ...

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

San Diego Museum of Art The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Galler ...

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 at 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, in Delaware Park. the museum's Elmwood Avenue campus is temporarily closed for construction. It hosted e ...

, 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 Art ...

''Cubi XVIII''
at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
''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 U ...

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

Storm King Art Center Storm King Art Center, commonly referred to as Storm King and named after its proximity to Storm King Mountain, is an open-air museum located in New Windsor, New York. It contains what is perhaps the largest collection of contemporary outdo ...

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

Yale University Art Gallery The Yale University Art Gallery (YUAG) is the oldest university art museum in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a major encyclopedic collection of art in several interconnected buildings on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. ...

''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 neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
''Cubi XXV''
owned by Jane Lang Davis
''Cubi XXVI''
at the National Gallery of Art 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 on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

''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 ...

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