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"David Smith is judged to be the most important pioneer of a separate American movement in sculpture. He was the first to introduce welded steel, an artistic medium discovered in Europe, into twentieth-century sculpture in the New World. In his work he consiously adopted elements of Surrealism, Cubism and Constructivism movements familiar to him from a stay in Europe in 1935. In the 1950s he in turn affected the development of European welded steel sculpture, influencing such artists as Paolozzi, Luginbuhl, Tinguely, Chillida, Caro and Kricke. Until he turned to sculpture in the 1930s Smith considered himself a painter, and his drawings are among the finest products of American draughtsmanship."--BOOK JACKET.