About 1933 Smith began to make small sculptures with found materials. Initially working in a room at Terminal Iron Works, a Brooklyn welding shop, Smith moved in 1940 to Bolton Landing in the Adirondacks, where he named his studio after the site of his original space. Using scavenged metal or machine parts—in this case commercial boiler tops ordered from a catalogue—and, after 1950, working in series, Smith crafted forms that he referred to as "personages," for their physical presence and human scale. The anthropomorphic Tanktotems combine his interest in the Surrealist totem—an object at once desired and taboo—and the impulse to achieve a new spatial reality through industrial materials and techniques such as welding.
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Inscription: Signed,dated, and inscribed (on plaque welded to base): David Smith/1952-53/TANKTOTEM II
the artist, Bolton Landing, N.Y. (1953; sold through the Kootz Gallery, New York to MMA)
New York. Kootz Gallery. "David Smith: New Sculpture," January 26–February 14, 1953, no. 11 (as "Tanktotem II [Sounding]").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Painting, 1754–1954," December 18, 1953–September 1954, no catalogue.
Washington Gallery of Modern Art. "David Smith, 1906–1965: A Retrospective Exhibition," January 7–February 26, 1967, no. 230 (as "Tank Totem II [sounding]").
New York. B. Altman & Co. December 4–10, 1969, no catalogue.
Mountainville, N.Y. Storm King Art Center. "David Smith Exhibition," May 12–October 31, 1976, unnumbered cat. (as "Tank Totem II [Sounding]").
Mountainville, N.Y. Storm King Art Center. "Drawings and Sculptures: Noguchi, Calder, and Smith," May 23–October 29, 1979, no catalogue [withdrawn early?].
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Recent Acquisitions: Twentieth Century Art Department," October 16, 1979–January 30, 1980, no catalogue (added to the exhibition on November 21, 1979).
Mountainville, N. Y. Storm King Art Center. "20th Century Sculpture: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 18–October 31, 1984, unnum. brochure (as "Tanktotem II [Sounding]").
Bronx. Herbert H. Lehman College Art Gallery of The City University of New York. "Relationships: Paintings, Sculpture, and Drawings from the Twentieth Century Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 16, 1984–January 6, 1985, no. 33.
Canberra. Australian National Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," March 1–April 27, 1986, unnumbered cat. (p. 61).
Brisbane. Queensland Art Gallery. "20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York," May 7–July 1, 1986, unnumbered cat.
Roslyn Harbor, N. Y. Nassau County Museum of Art. "Intimates and Confidants in Art: Husbands, Wives, Lovers and Friends," February 28–May 23, 1993 (p. 62).
Sidney Geist. "Man of Iron." Art Digest 27 (February 1953), p. 16, calls it "Tank Totem Sounding" and states that this work "achieves a rewarding simplicity".
Howard Devree. "2 Centuries of Art in U.S. on Display." New York Times (December 18, 1953), p. L26, calls it "Tanktotem II (Sounding)".
Clement Greenberg. "David Smith." Art in America 51 (August 1963), ill. p. 116, calls it "Tanktotem II (Sounding)".
Albert TenEyck Gardner. American Sculpture: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1965, pp. 179–80, ill.
Rosalind E. Krauss. Terminal Iron Works: The Sculpture of David Smith. Cambridge, Mass., 1971, p. 75 n. 34, p. 162, fig. 135.
Rosalind E. Krauss. The Sculpture of David Smith: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York, 1977, p. 58, no. 283, fig. 283.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1983–1984. New York, 1984, p. 94.
Michael Brenson. "Art: 100 Modern Sculptures at Storm King Center." New York Times (August 3, 1984), p. C20.
William Zimmer. "Show Looks at Link Between Drawings and Finished Work." New York Times (December 2, 1984), p. WC32.
Felicity Moore in20th Century Masters from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Exh. cat., Australian National Gallery. Canberra, 1986, p. 61, ill. (color).
Stella Paul. Twentieth-Century Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Resource for Educators. New York, 1999, pp. 95–97, ill. and ill. p. 94 (color).
Max Hollein. Modern and Contemporary Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2019, ill. p. 108 (color).
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