By the time of his first one-man exhibition in 1938 he was producing sculpture of considerable originality, constructing pieces from steel and ‘found’ scrap, parts of agricultural machinery, etc. His passion for technology was expressed when he wrote: ‘The equipment I use, my supply of material, comes from factory study, and duplicates as nearly as possible the production equipment used in making a locomotive…What associations the metal possesses are those of this century: power, structure, movement, progress, suspension, destruction, brutality.’Smith settled at Bolton Landing in upstate New York in 1940. In the same year he exhibited a set of fifteen bronze relief plaques entitled Medals for Dishonor stigmatizing violence and greed. He was employed as a welder on defence work 1942–4, then returned to sculpture, and from this time began to build an international reputation. During the 1940s and 1950s his sculpture was predominantly open and linear, like three-dimensional metal calligraphy (Hudson River Landscape, 1951, Whitney Mus., New York). From the end of the 1950s, however, his style became more monumental and geometrical, with boxes and cylinders of polished metal joined at odd angles. Although the forms are often massive, the effect they create is not one of heaviness but of unstable dynamism, the exhilarating sense of freedom being enhanced by the reflection of sunlight from the bright surfaces (they are usually intended for outdoor settings). These works were often created in series, such as Zig, Cubi, and Voltri. They initiated a new era in American sculpture, and gave Smith a place as the peer of the great Abstract Expressionist painters who were his contemporaries. Like the most famous of the Abstract Expressionists, Jackson Pollock, Smith died in an automobile accident.