More about Smoke

Sam Bleiberg

Contributor

Don’t be surprised if Tony Smith's Smoke gives you anxiety. Especially if you get nervous about creepy crawling bugs.

Smith drew his inspiration from natural geometric structures such as beehives and cells. Though we wouldn't want to see the bees that live in this gigantic thing. This is an enormous sculpture at 24 feet high and 48 feet across. Smith faced budget cuts due to the cost of all that metal and had to exhibit a smaller, wood version of the sculpture in the '60s. The vast size of even the cheapo version earned him the cover of Time magazine. The headline? "Art Outgrows the Museum." Luckily, LACMA found a place for the remake.

Smith never got to see his metal monster in person however, as it was created after his death. Sweetly, it was his widow's wish to have all his sculptural works completed before she also kicked it. 

Unfortunately, despite all the fun it would be, climbing is forbidden.

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Wikipedia

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Here is what Wikipedia says about Smoke (1/3)

Smoke is a large-scale sculpture conceived by American artist Tony Smith in 1967 that was fabricated posthumously in 2005 for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) where it was installed in 2008. This two-tier sculptures standing 24 foot tall is made of aluminum and painted black.

Check out the full Wikipedia article about Smoke (1/3)

Comments (4)

Cedri cWalker
3 years ago

Very informative n thoughtful update that you always have for the public and all the references are quite understandable as well

MonicaMartin
3 years ago

What a stunning piece. Wish you had actually written or done more research.

TrentonAudette
3 years ago

You're right, this work gives me a lot of anxiety

Chloe Waters
3 years ago

It's kinda neat you can walk through this just like real smoke!