Amaryllis, by Tony Smith, is a large geometrically abstract painted welded steel sculpture that was completed in 1965. Smith felt that the amaryllis flower did not conform to regular “notions of pretty” in nature. To him, the flower appeared to be made of rubber and was rather gaudy and obscene. In the spirit of 1960s artistic minimalism, Smith reduced the natural forms of the flower into faceted geometric planes. He further abstracted the natural model by painting the sculptural translation flat black in color. The work is an iconic example of minimalism in its abstraction from nature into industrial, man-made materials.
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