Throwback (3/3)
Construction
Tony Smith’s Throwback (3/3) is a painted aluminum construction. Sheets of aluminum were welded together at various angles to form a geometric, four-sided, hollow, elongated ring. The matte finish was achieved by coating the sculpture with a flat-black industrial fluoropolymer exterior paint applied. Currently sited on a patch of turf, the sculpture is supported by three subterranean plates with brackets at three points.
About the Work
In the early to mid-sixties, Smith experimented with tetrahedral and octahedral forms in sculptures such as Willy and Amaryllis. Over a decade later, Smith returned to these earlier geometries with Throwback. The title, “Throwback,” alludes to this reference. Smith elaborated, “In a certain sense the piece is unique. I did not have the prospect or opportunity of making a large architectural sculpture so I decided to do something more conventional. I made an object that recalls an earlier period.”
Provenance
While the work is dated from 1976-1977, the Hirshhorn’s edition (3/3) was acquired from the Pace Gallery in 1980. Lippincott fabricated the sculpture in North Haven, Connecticut in the same year.
Related Works
The other two sculptures in the edition were purchased by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the International Paper Company, which originally displayed its version at the company’s New York Headquarters. Several other versions of the work exist. In 1976, a smaller (62 x 150 inches), unique version of the work was installed at Grove Isle, Coconut Grove, Florida. A full-scale plywood model, painted black, was created for exhibition at the Pace Gallery in 1979. A cardboard maquette (measuring 13 1/2 x 32 1/2 x 16 inches) was intended to serve as the model of an edition of 9 bronzes. However, the maquette was ultimately produced in a numbered edition of 6.
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