Skip to main content
Label Text Tony Smith’s earliest sculptures date to his days spent quarantined from his family while he recovered from tuberculosis. The ample supply of medicine boxes used to treat his illness provided the medium for his small scale models and his imagination. Smith’s long career in architecture was also highly influential on his output as a sculptor, evidenced most directly in the large scale of his work and the building-like manner in which his shapes interact with their surrounding space. Marriage is one of Smith’s important early large-scale works and masterfully combines abstract geometric forms with human characteristics. Formally, Marriage offers an arch for the viewer to pass through, and presents a dialogue between the various connecting rectangular blocks. The work’s title, a dominant cultural institution, implies a specific interpretation for the sculpture.
Published References"John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park", Lea Rosson DeLong, ed., Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, 1923, pp. 131-132
Fabricator
Lippincott Sculpture
DimensionsOverall: 120 × 144 × 120 in., 5000 lb. (304.8 × 365.8 × 304.8 cm, 2268 kg.)
Accession Number 2015.24
Classificationssculpture
CopyrightARS
Edition2/3
ProvenanceLippincott [fabricated, 1989]. (Paula Cooper Gallery, New York); John and Mary Pappajohn [purchased from previous; 1989]; Des Moines Art Center [gift from previous, 2015]

Images (1)

Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines

Audio (1)

Marriage
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: © Cameron Campbell 2009
Tony Smith
1962, fabricated 2005
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Mark di Suvero
1987
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
David Smith
1961
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ugo Rondinone
2005
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ugo Rondinone
2006
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Tony Feher
2012
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Jaume Plensa
2007
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Robert Smithson
1966
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Tony Cragg
1988
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Tony Cragg
1989