David Hayes In The Natural World
July 4 - August 10, 2025
curated by:
Anita Shapolsky
The Anita Shapolsky Art Foundation is proud to present David Hayes In the Natural World, a collection of abstract works inspired by nature.
American modern master David Hayes (1931-2013) created graceful sculptures abstracted from organic forms over an artistic career that spanned six decades. His monumental outdoor sculptures contemplate the relationship between a work of art and the environment it occupies, and show the influence of teacher David Smith and friend Alexander Calder.
In 1954, David Smith accepted a teaching position at Indiana with Hayes in his classes. Following formal studies, he would continue to work with Smith, now his friend, at his Bolton Landing studio and sculpture workshop.
From his teacher Hayes mastered an appreciation for the permanence of steel. In Indiana, both Smith and Hayes would learn about forging from a local blacksmith, greatly influencing their work. Smith began his Forging Series in 1955, and continued to create his revered Tanktotems. Hayes forged his own animal forms, sculptures that were quickly accepted into shows at New York’s Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum’s inaugural exhibition in 1959.
Hayes received his MFA in June 1955 and soon after receive numerous awards for his work, including the Logan Prize for Sculpture from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961 and an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. That same year he
was awarded both a Fulbright Scholarship for study in Paris and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
Hayes left for Paris in 1961. There he regularly visited Calder, who lived in central France. He also crossed the Channel to meet with Henry Moore and interacted with Giacometti in Paris. All the while he continued making forged steel sculpture and began an aggressive show schedule in Paris and the US under the Willard Gallery and the David Anderson Gallery.
On returning to the US a decade later, he moved from forged steel to cut steel plate as it allowed him to go larger. He continued an enormously prolific career with over 500 exhibitions and works in over a hundred institutional collections across America. Since his death in 2013, his estate has continued to mount multiple museum exhibitions a year.
Courtesy of The David Hayes Art Foundation
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