Wright Auction

Smith’s evolution from painter to sculptor was not simple or straightforward. Rather than “switching” focus, he extended his understanding of both of these media until they merged into one form of expression. The subject was what he referred to as his “identity.” A common thread in all his work was the centrality of drawing.

Smith’s works on paper reveal the importance that he placed on visual detail and nuance. Like the elements of one of his welded sculptures, every brush stroke carries the specificity, gravity, and surface detail of an object. The drawings bear an important relationship to Smith's careful attention to the surfaces of his sculpture, particularly that of the late painted steel and burnished stainless-steel sculpture.

In his drawings, Smith used an inventive variety of media, different types of paper, and various methods and speeds of application, to produce a great range of effects. In B 5/58 16 (the sixteenth work in a numbered series completed in May of 1958), the ink was quickly absorbed by the smooth surface of the paper, giving a subtle depth and softness to the clarity of his fast-paced gestures.

Rather than depicting a graphic, two-dimensional image, or proposing a model or illusion of space, B 5/58 16 seems to construct actual space through the accumulation of gestures. We experience the space in this drawing, as well as the weight and balance of each brush stroke, visually and corporeally, as we do in the world when confronted with actual objects.

The meaning, for Smith, was his identity, manifest through his creative act—constructing “new unities.” 

Peter Stevens, Executive Director, The Estate of David Smith,
Don't Look Now: Contemporary Drawings from an Alumna's Collection

Martina Yamin is a devoted collector with a keen eye for the immediacy and intimacy of works on paper, the dynamic relationship between language and line and the expansive possibilities of “drawing” as an artistic practice. Yamin has also been a paper conservator for nearly fifty years; this lifelong work informs her collecting ethos and drives her tireless pursuit of new and diverse voices in the world of contemporary drawing.

Yamin was raised in Philadelphia and gained an early appreciation for art, often visiting galleries and museums with her parents. She studied art history at Wellesley College, where she was initiated into the “Wellesley Method,” which asserted that in order to faithfully write about and critique art, one must have the direct experience of creating art. Studio courses were integral to the study of art history and it trained Yamin to approach viewing work as a “hands-on process, rather than a strictly intellectual process”.

After graduating from Wellesley in 1958, Yamin began studying conservation and working at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. In the early 1960s, she established her own paper conservation practice and has been working closely with galleries and museum ever since; this also put her in a favorable position to develop relationships with artists and gallerists and begin building her impressive and highly personal collection.

This present collection of over two-hundred works on paper (along with a number of three-dimensional works) illustrates how Yamin believes that looking at art should be a demanding experience that engages all of the senses. The works in this collection inhabit many moods—some works shout, while others hide; some dazzle with their density and others revel in sparseness. Many works shirk their duties of being tidy, complete thoughts and instead are fragments of ideas, explorations of material – a feeling being worked out through the intimacy of hand to paper. Not all of the artists represented in Yamin’s collection consider drawing to be their primary medium, but they do all regard the immediacy of drawing as essential to their practice.

Over her many years of collecting, Martina has kept detailed notes pertaining not just to the particulars of a work, but also of conversations she’s had with artists, reviews of various gallery shows and literature about the evolution of artist’s careers. Her profound commitment to works on paper and celebration of distinctive artistic voices is deeply felt in this collection that at turns delights and bewilders with its sensitivity and insistent energy. Yamin currently serves as a co-chair of the Museum of Modern Art's Contemporary Drawing and Prints Associates, is a member of the Morgan Library Modern and Contemporary Collectors Committee and is on the National Arts Club's Curatorial Committee. She continues to delight in finding fresh new visual insights on paper.