NGA Classroom: New Angles on Art: Student Activity: Geometry and Tony Smith Sculpture

Student Activity: Geometry and Tony Smith Sculpture

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Tony Smith, Moondog, model 1964, fabricated 1998-1999

Tony Smith mixed art and math; for him, it was the most natural thing in the world.

Smith suffered from tuberculosis as a child. To avoid spreading the disease, he spent hours by himself, making buildings and miniature cities from small medicine boxes. He put the boxes—cubes and other polyhedra—together in different ways for his creations.

Smith became an architect and painter. When a serious car accident laid him up, he returned to his childhood pastime of making sculpture from boxes. From there, he went on to produce some of the most striking works of monumental outdoor sculpture of the 20th century.

Moondog

Moondog? What kind of a title is that for a huge black metal, geometric sculpture? It looks more like the Mars lander, a bulky temple, maybe a cave or clubhouse, or a Tinker-Toy on steroids!

Take a close look from several angles.

Moondog doesn't stand perfectly upright, as you might expect when looking at it head-on. It actually leans, tilts, and twists. Scholars say this gives it both a human aspect and a spiritual side. In fact, Tony Smith's goal was to express the spiritual in his work.

Smith said the sculpture reminded him of a Japanese lantern and of the human pelvis, the bones that hold our spine and legs together. But he named it Moondog for two reasons: after a blind poet and musician called "Moondog" who hung out on the streets of New York where Smith lived, and after a painting by Spanish artist Joan Miró of a dog barking at the moon.

A Closer Look:

Select the basic two-dimensional shape Smith used in Moondog:

Smith's Triangles

All kinds of triangles—three-sided polygons—make up the faces of the polyhedra (the geometric solid parts) of Moondog. Roll your mouse over Moondog to see triangles defined by the length of their sides:

equilateral triangles = (red) all equal sides
scalene triangles = (blue) have no equal sides
isosceles triangles = (green) have two equal sides

How would Moondog be different if Smith had used all equilateral triangles?

Triangles are also identified by their types of angles. Roll your mouse over Moondog to see:

right triangle (blue) = with one 90° angle
acute triangle (yellow) = all angles less than 90°
equiangular triangle (white) = all angles equal

Triangles are just one type of polygon.

Remember: polygons are closed plane (flat, two-dimensional) figures bounded by straight lines. Polygons may be regular (sides and angles are equal) or irregular. Triangles, rectangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons, and octagons are polygons.

Poly=many Gon=angle

Look carefully at Moondog. Which other polygons can you find? Click on the shape names below to view them.

pentagon (5 sides)
hexagon (6 sides)
nonagon (9 sides)

Did you find all three? What about the pentagon—is it regular or irregular?

Can you find any rectangles? The see-through parts of the sculpture (called negative space) look like rectangles though they aren't true rectangles.

All images on page: Tony Smith, Moondog, model 1964, fabricated 1998–1999

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