Untitled, 1946 by David Smith

Untitled, 1946 by David Smith

Wexner Center for Arts

Ohio State University

We interpreted the painting as showing the relationship between human and nature. All the humans in the painting are female, and it appears that the birds or creatures inside the birds are trying to make love to them. There is a creature coming out of a bird and a bird hugging another female. This might possibly be showing the complexity between human and nature. If you look closely, you can see that the humans are always above the creatures. At one side of the painting there is a tree like object with what appears to be a bird's nest in it. This might be where the birds came from. There is also a ton of other symbolism, such as possible candles on candelabras, and what appears to be anchors. We are unsure of what these represent, maybe they could be representing human influence. The upper left hand corner has symbols that remind us of hieroglyphs, so possibly a language is being incorporated into the painting as well. The language does seem to be connected to a female, so maybe it is her thought. This painting is also interesting because we think that it might be unfinished. In the bottom left hand corner there is an incomplete drawing and a spot of color. We think the artist might have intended to put something there but never did. The painting itself appears to have an egyptian and greek influence. The middle female character resembles egyptian drawings and sculpture, and the second female is posed like greek sculptures. This might be what inspired the art style of the painting. The painting is very complex and we also think that there might be another female character in the upper right corner. It is very hard to interpret. She seems to be made out of stones, and seems to have fabric around her, possibly getting dressed to look like the other females. The painting is tough to interpret but we think the common theme is the relationship between human and nature. 

Theodore Mackey

Michael McIntyre