“The material called iron or steel I hold in high respect. What it can do in arriving at a form economically, no other material can do... What associations it possesses are those of this century: power, structure, movement, progress, suspension, destruction, brutality.”

—  David Smith

quote, early 1950's
Source: 1950s, from 'Abstract Expressionism' (1990), p. 41

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The material called iron or steel I hold in high respect. What it can do in arriving at a form economically, no other m…" by David Smith?
David Smith photo
David Smith24
American visual artist (1906-1965) 1906–1965

Related quotes

Pope Benedict XVI photo

“You might think that in today's world people are unlikely to start worshipping other gods. But sometimes people do worship 'other gods' without realizing it. False 'gods' are nearly always associated with the worship of three things: material possessions, possessive love, or power.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

2008, Inter-religious Meeting (17 July 2008)

Sheyene Gerardi photo

“Some asteroids are made of an iron-nickel-cobalt alloy. Others contain carbon. Combine those and you have steel alloy. A solar furnace can heat the mix to the point you can cast or roll it to shape. So structural parts are about the easiest thing to do.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

“Power is not a material possession that can be given, it is the ability to act. Power must be taken, it is never given.”

William Powell (author) book The Anarchist Cookbook

"Foreword".
The Anarchist Cookbook (1971)

El Lissitsky photo

“PROUN is understood as the creative construction of form (based on the mastery of space) assisted by economic construction of the applied material. The goal of PROUN is progressive movement on the way to concrete creation, and not the substantiation, explanation, or promotion of life.”

El Lissitsky (1890–1941) Soviet artist, designer, photographer, teacher, typographer and architect

1915 - 1925, Theses on the 'PROUN': from painting to architecture' (1920)

Frank Wilczek photo

“What is conserved, in modern physics, is not any particular substance or material but only much more abstract entities such as energy, momentum, and electric charge. The permanent aspects of reality are not particular materials or structures but rather the possible forms of structures and the rules for their transformation.”

Frank Wilczek (1951) physicist

Source: Longing for the Harmonies: Themes and Variations from Modern Physics (1987), Ch.8 The Weak Interaction

Geoffrey Chaucer photo

“If gold rusts, what then can iron do?”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

Source: The Canterbury Tales

Hilaire Belloc photo

“Wealth, for the purposes of economic study, is confined to those values attaching to material objects through the action of man, which values can be exchanged /or other values.”

Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) writer

Source: Economics for Helen (1924), Ch. 1 : What is Wealth?

John Lennon photo

“If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that… I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

“Stone is the only true material for the sculptor. All others, tin, iron bars, tin cans and coiled springs are merely poor substitutes”

Fritz Wotruba (1907–1975) Austrian sculptor (23 April 1907, Vienna – 28 August 1975, Vienna)

Source: 'Sculpture of Rotterdam', ed. Jan van Adrichem / Jelle Bouwhuis / Mariëtte Dulle, Center for the Art, 010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 2002, p. 198.

Eleanor Roosevelt photo

“What you don't do can be a destructive force.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Related topics