Against Reason: Tony Smith, Sculpture, and Other Modernisms

A book of commissioned essays and artist projects exploring the indelible impact of American artist Tony Smith (1912–1980) on modern and contemporary art history serves as the companion volume to Tony Smith Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné.

Edited by James Voorhies

Contributions by Judith Barry, Tom Burr, Yann Chateigné Tytelman, Saim Demircan, Mario Gooden, and Jenni Sorkin

MIT Press, October 2024
216 pp., 5 x 8 in, 130 color illus., 20 b&w illus.

Designed by Practise

Made possible with funding and support from Tony Smith Foundation and MIT Press; initiated as part of my responsibilities while Executive Director of the Tony Smith Foundation

Against Reason: Tony Smith, Sculpture, and Other Modernisms is published alongside Tony Smith Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, itself the first of two volumes—the other focusing on architecture—documenting the artist's career. This book reveals the depth and complexity of Smith's oeuvre in sculpture while positioning its transdisciplinary nature in dialogue with contemporary practitioners. Commissioned essays by art historians and curators and visual projects by artists offer renewed perspectives on a variety of cultural systems, exploring the ongoing vitality of Smith's work. Their contributions reflect upon the modernist era in which Smith's work was produced to think through ingrained ideologies, revealing other, parallel modernisms and histories.

Against Reason delves into work by Smith that has not been previously parsed or discussed within art historical contexts. The book shuttles among visual art projects and texts, from Mario Gooden's essay exploring Smith's refusal to occupy the known quantities assigned to “artist” and “architect,” to Saim Demircan's study of the re-presentation of Smith's work through its photo-documentation in the mainstream press, to Judith Barry's transformation of Smith's sculpture into the form of a flipbook and centerpiece “pop-up.” Jenni Sorkin explores the influence of Smith's sculpture practice on his daughter Kiki Smith, while Yann Chateigné Tytelman casts a wider net to examine correspondences between Smith and the contemporary artists Joachim Koester, Mai-Thu Perret, and Cauleen Smith. Tom Burr closes the volume with a photo-collage project reflective of his ongoing engagement with Tony Smith's oeuvre.

MIT Press, Preface