well known objects. However Tony Smith’s piece of art is something unique. It argues a different perception of art and a way nature, time, and the audience influences each other. This piece of art shows that anyone can become part of art and how art can fit in with our everyday life. Tony Smith’s background in art, the elements of “Willy”, and the environment in which it is placed all give us insight into the connections between artist, audience, elements, and environment.Tony Smith was born in South Orange, New Jersey into an Irish catholic family. As a child he was stricken with tuberculosis. While being quarantined from his family, he started making models from small medicine boxes (New Angles on Art). Later in life he did paintings and worked in architecture. However, he became frustrated when clients wanted to keep changing his ideas. So he instead focused more on art. An idea for his first sculpture came to him while teaching a course on basic design (Time Magazine). His students were creating basic designs using cigarette boxes when he noticed a black file box behind them (Time Magazine). As a result, his first work of art was a metal box which simply enough he named “Black Box”. After this he began to create more geometric works of art, which displayed some of his architecture background. These pieces would later go from inside museums and later break outside of them into the outdoors.
This break from the confines of a museum into nature shows how expansive art can be. It proves that to experience art you do not have to enter a building to view it, or possibly pay money to view it. With sculptures outdoors, any person can be exposed to it. For example, “Willy” is placed on a campus where students from all sorts of backgrounds and intelligences walk by. With sculptures and other forms of art being placed outdoors, you hav
e a more vast audience you are not limited to just people with a background in art, or old couples getting out and around. Everyday people can now try to relate to it. Ironically, Tony Smith named this piece of art after the character Willie from Samuel Beckett’s play Happy Days. In this play, Willie is a character that crawled as a mode of transportation. In the same manor you could say that “Willy” crawled his way out of traditional art viewing into a more exclusive way for viewers to experience. This change creates a greater bond between audience, sculpture, placement, and artist. Tony Smith felt that America was growing and expanding with sky scrapers and other buildings, so he wanted to create sculptures that would be more to scale with this change (Time Magazine). He did just that. He made a definite connection between audiences that were expanding their lives in conjunction with the growing society, and created large works of art that would stand out for audiences to become a part of.Like many of his other works of art, Tony Smith had a unique way of piecing elements together to get an expansive and incredible work of art. His pieces were welded steel formed into geometric shapes. Any signs of welding were smoothed over. This made the piece seem more natural and took people away from focusing on the lines connecting each piece to the larger structure he had created. Geometric shapes can allow an audience member to relate their background in shapes like triangles trapezoids and others that are implemented into his work. Most of audience me
mbers, in other words passer byes, remember dealing with these sorts of shapes in some point in their life. This addiction of geometric shapes can bring you back to the simplicity of childhood, and the emotions and memories that go with it.Most importantly, “Willy” is greatly influenced through the nature in which it was placed and the surrounding environment in which the statue is presented. When “Willy” was placed outside the doors of the Sheldon Museum of Art, it was placed in a more open space than those in the surrounding area. When put in an area like the one “Willy” was placed in it is more susceptible to the nature, weather, and objects surrounding it. In addition to this it gives the opportunity to walk up to it, touch it, and view it in a much closer proximity. When you stand close to this sculpture in the more sunny times of the year you can see a reflection of the colors you present. It is like you are meant to influence this sculpture in even a minimal way. The way you place yourself in relation to the sculpture affects the perception you get. This sculpture, with its large size, allows you to move around it and through it. So you can get a really broad and diverse feeling for it. In addition, the different seasons have an effect on “Willy”. With the sun beating down on this piece you not only get reflections of various colors, but “Willy” also casts obscure shadows beneath and around it. This causes the image of “Willy” to be in a constant change. The Earth is constantly moving around the Sun, making it change
positions constantly. As seasons come and go the relationship between sculpture and weather changes. During fall months, the background of this piece of art changes. The grass that was once a luscious green has faded into a brown colored landscape. In the same way the trees transition through color schemes. They move from green leaves to more bright reds, oranges, or yellows; eventually the leaves fall off the tree all together. This gives the whole background a deader look. With the color of “Willy” being black, it doesn’t really clash with any of the colors of seasons. It is one basic color that goes with almost any. In transition from the dead of fall, the winter months bring snow to the campus. This gives yet another look and environment for Tony Smith’s “Willy”. Snow will cover some of “Willy” while most will fall at its base. Nature causes the makeup, view, and perspective of the sculpture to change.Tony Smith composition of “Willy” has shown audiences the connection between artist, audience, elements,
and environment. It has also shown that when a sculpture is placed outside it takes on a new meaning. Audiences of different types and backgrounds are able to see them in a way that relates to them specifically. Also with it being outdoors, more people are able to see it. Tony Smith wanted to have a larger scaled piece of art to relate it to the growing size of the world’s skyscrapers and life in general. His larger than life sculptures allow viewers that may have no background in art to now be able to relate to it. I feel that Tony Smith has changed sculpting from the original “art” to which we are familiar, and turned into a more modern form that many people can relate to. With sculptures like his out in the open, many people from different backgrounds can be exposed to it and create their own feeling. “Willy” dares people to think.Statement of Purpose
WP3 Rough Draft
Works Cited:
(n.d.). Snapshot: tony smith. Retrieved from http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/new_angles/bio_smith.shtm
(1967, October 13). Sculpture: master of the monumentalists. Time Magazine, Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,837402-1,00.html
Authors Note
The task of finding rhetorical appeals shown within a sculpture was difficult for me. Prior to this project, I had no experience with this form of art. Thus, it made it hard for me to even begin thinking about this project. I felt that my sculpture, “Willy”, was going to be difficult to analyze due to its abstract form. Looking at all of the sculptures around the Sheldon Museum of Art many of them had human-like forms. “The Fallen Dreamer”, “A Woman Lying Down”, “Story”, are examples of these sculptures. When we first started this assignment, I felt like I was given the short end of the stick. I felt that I was going to have one of the hardest times finishing our final writing assignment. However when I looked past my frustration, I realized that this abstract form of artwork gave me a more open slate. It allowed me to explore past arguments focused on man and man’s actions or thoughts.
With this open slate it was still a very hard task for me to come up with a possible argument to present about this sculpture by Tony Smith. When given class time to sit with our sculpture and free write I got many ideas, however none of them supplied me with a good argument I noticed first the geometric shapes throughout the whole sculpture. I then clung to that idea. When our first pre-write assignment came around I found that though I picked out the rather obvious point of geometric shapes within the piece, I did not come up with anything to tie it to. I made the mistake of trying to make that piece work for that particular post. Looking up the background of Tony Smith and looking deeper into the creating of “Willy” was a bit difficult for me; however after searching I was able to find the meaning behind the sculptures name and Tony Smith’s background. To my pleasure, this helped me in searching for an argument. Finally after more class time with my sculpture I was able to find an argument.
For my argument I felt that “Willy” showed an alteration from what we see as traditional art to an art that the audience itself could relate and contribute to. I tried to fit this argument into an essay in the best way. At first I felt it was rather choppy and had no cohesiveness. It seemed to me that I was just rambling about nothing. I hit my backspace button quite a few times during my rough drafts, trying to find the right words and way to present this argument. When it came time for peer reviews I was given tips of what I should add, keep the same, or change. In my conclusion I had failed to make a “So what?” statement. And my peer suggested I replace one of my hyperlinks with a Wikipedia page that gave information about Tony Smith. I took this advice and revised my conclusion, tried to add some more emotion to my piece, and change my hyperlink.
