In the late 1950s, David Smith began laying down sheets of paper or canvas on his workshop floor, arranging objects on them, spraying enamel paint from aerosol cans on and around the objects, then removing them from the surface, leaving behind silhouettes of varying shapes intertwined with vibrantly colored passages. When the objects were removed, their silhouettes remained, sometimes with hazy outlines from the diffused paint that seeped beneath the objects’ edges. The Sprays can feature bold forms in complex rhythms against misty backgrounds that have been likened to a celestial expanse. They express the ambiguity between positive and negative space, contrasting layers of effervescent color with areas of white. Shapes can appear weightless, sometimes clustering together and at other times moving apart amidst the sprayed pigments. Spray enamel was a new medium at the time, only recently available on a commercial basis—and one that was associated with industrial manufacturing. There was no precedent for using it as an artistic medium. That would not have deterred Smith, who, though trained as a painter at the Art Students League, would deploy the technical knowledge he absorbed working in automotive and locomotive factories to construct welded metal sculptures.
