Home of the Welder
- Artist: David Smith
- Date: 1945
- Medium: Steel
- Dimensions: object: 533 x 438 x 356 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Home of the Welder” by David Smith. Made in 1945, right after World War II, the piece is a welded steel sculpture that reads like a personal diary. Smith had just left a wartime job as a welder, and the central millstone in the work stands for that occupation – a symbol of the tools that both shaped and restrained him.
Around the millstone you see a small dog, a mirror, and a woman holding a flower, all tucked into the metal frame. These figures echo his first marriage: the woman and child imagery hint at the tension of a relationship without children. The back of the sculpture features an oval relief of a reclining woman, perhaps his wife, reflecting the domestic sphere that conflicted with his artistic drive.
The result is an intimate, abstract box of welded steel that blurs the line between home and studio, work and personal life.
See it in person
Home of the Welder is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
