Gracehoper

1961

Tony Smith American, 1912 - 1980

On View

Northwest Lawn at corner of Woodward and Kirby Streets Wing

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About the Artwork

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Markings

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Provenance

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisonné

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Credit Line for Reproduction

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About the Artwork

Tony Smith came to sculpture from architecture and design. In about 1960 he turned his professional attention to organically derived, and then to crystalline and modular, three-dimensional forms. A friend of the Abstract Expressionists, and a teacher who impressed students by correlating the experience of art and sculpture with that of life and the environment, Smith saw his career take off late, almost contemporaneously with that of minimalists Donald Judd and Carl Andre. Inspiration for “Gracehoper” goes back to 1963, a reflection on the tetrahedrons and octahedrons Smith had encountered in crystallography. One of his most complex sculptures, it took eight years for him to realize it on the intended scale. The six separately fabricated steel units were assembled on the museum’s north lawn in 1972. The title, a pun on the grasshopper it resembles, derives from the mythical beast of the same name in James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake.”

Title Gracehoper

Artwork Date 1961

Artist Tony Smith

Life Dates 1912 - 1980

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. Unknown

Medium Steel and paint

Dimensions Overall: 23 × 22 × 46 feet (7 m 1 cm × 6 m 70.6 cm × 14 m 2.1 cm)

Classification Sculpture

Department Contemporary Art after 1950

Credit Founders Society Purchase with funds from W. Hawkins Ferry and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Buhl Ford II Fund, Eleanor Clay Ford Fund, Marie and Alex Manoogian Fund and members of the Friends of Modern Art

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 72.436

Markings

Signed Signed, plaque inside of sculpture: Tony Smith

Inscriptions Dated on plaque inside of sculpture: 1961 [Note: Smith prefered to date his work according to date of concept rather than fabrication.]

Provenance

1972-present, purchase, commissioned from the artist by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Provenance page

Exhibition History

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Published References

Bulletin of the DIA 50, no. 2 (1971): pp. 18-22 (cover ill.).

Bulletin of the DIA 52, no. 1 (1973): pp. 1, 23, 72 (ill.).

Green, Eleanor. "The Morphology of Tony Smith's Work." Artforum (April 1974): 54-59 (ill.).

Ocvirk, O.G.,et al. Art Fundamentals: Theory and Practice. Dubuque, 1975, fig. 224 and back cover.

Rose, Barbara. American Art since 1900. New York, 1975, p. 278, fig. II-54.

Armstrong, Tom, et al. 200 Years of American Sculpture. Boston, 1976, fig. 321, p. 220, (ill.).

100 Masterworks from the Detroit Institute of Arts. New York, 1985, pp. 232, 233 (ill.).

Tony Smith: Selected Sculptures 1961-1973, Part I. New York, 1985, (ill.).

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Tony Smith, Gracehoper, 1961, steel and paint. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase with funds from W. Hawkins Ferry and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Buhl Ford II Fund, et al., 72.436.