Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné Project

The MIT Press and the Tony Smith Foundation are pleased to announce the release of Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné: Sculpture and the companion book Against Reason: Tony Smith, Sculpture, and Other Modernisms. Edited by art historian and curator James Voorhies and Sarah Auld, director of the Tony Smith Estate, with art historians Joan Pachner and Christopher Ketcham, and designed by Practise, these books published by The MIT Press are the first in a series of publications to fully document the work of American artist Tony Smith (1912–1980).

Please join us on October 22, 2024, from 6 to 8pm, for a private reception at Pace Gallery, 540 W. 25th Street, New York, to celebrate the launch of the Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné Project. RSVP with your name and reference "Tony Smith Book Launch" to rsvp@pacegallery.com by Tuesday, October 15.  

Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné: Sculpture, with more than 500 full-color illustrations, is the first in a multi-publication project conceived to reveal the depth and complexity of Smith's oeuvre while positioning its transdisciplinary nature in dialogue with contemporary voices.

Often made of steel and painted black, Smith’s monumental constructions firmly secure his place among the most advanced and experimental artists of the 1960s. The ever-shifting qualities of his imposing sculptures engage spectators in phenomenological experiences that continually change in relation to motion, position, sightline, and perspective, amid a panoply of shapes that generate and regenerate anew with each incremental change in viewpoint. The expansive, interconnected fluidity among Smith’s bodies of work—including sculpture, architecture, painting, and drawing—has made his legacy both challenging to decipher and enormously appealing to subsequent generations of artists. Nevertheless, while Smith’s sculpture has left an indelible impact on modern and contemporary art history, the breadth of his creative and intellectual output remains to be fully explored. To foster such efforts, Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné: Sculpture serves as a comprehensive record, providing an archival foundation for future study, interpretation, and analysis of the artist’s work.

Against Reason: Tony Smith, Sculpture, and Other Modernisms is published alongside the catalogue raisonné to explore the ongoing vitality of Tony Smith, with newly commissioned essays and artist projects by Judith Barry, Tom Burr, Saim Demircan, Mario Gooden, Jenni Sorkin, and Yann Chateigné Tytelman. These contributions examine Smith’s ideas, work, and place, both in the art historical canon and through his continued influence. Combined, the catalogue raisonné volume on sculpture and Against Reason gather together what one might call “traveling companions,” a network of individuals committed to thinking around, against, and with the bodies of work by Tony Smith and the modernist era in which they were produced. Indeed, Smith’s career is a study in shuttling among disciplines, an approach that feels distinctly contemporary. These books will, for the first time, capture the depth, influence, and diversity of Smith's understudied oeuvre, establishing new ground for future interpretations and readings of his monumental work.

By embracing a broad range of contemporary scholarship and perspectives, these volumes on Smith push the boundaries of the conventional catalogue raisonné format. The project innovates and updates what a large-scale, long-term research effort can look and feel like, reflecting evolving methodologies for integrating research, thinking, and writing—indeed, interweaving modern and contemporary art histories. This approach is fitting not only to fully grasp Tony Smith but to position his legacy—as an artist, thinker, and visionary—in the contemporary arts and beyond.

Mark your calendars for the release of the next two volumes of the Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné Project in April 2025:

Tony Smith Catalogue Raisonné: Architecture
Edited by James Voorhies and Sarah Auld
With John Keenen, Christopher Ketcham, and Cynthia Davidson
Designed by Practise
Project Editing by John Ewing
The MIT Press

Documenting the complete design production and projects by American artist Tony Smith, this comprehensive book reveals the history and innovation of Smith's work in architecture.

Against Reason: Tony Smith, Architecture, and Other Modernisms
Edited by James Voorhies
Designed by Practise
The MIT Press

With original essays and visual arts projects by Mario Gooden, Christopher Ketcham, Marta Kuzma, Peter L’Official, R. H. Quaytman, and Jas Rault, this companion book explores the understudied breadth and richness of Tony Smith's work in architecture.