David Smith considered drawings to be a vital part of his oeuvre. The spray drawings series, made in his studio in Bolton Landing, New York, were first produced in 1957 and continue through to the early 1960s. Not only did he execute them in preparation for his sculptures, but also they stood as works in their own right, and were often made after the sculptures were finished. "I just want to put in a word to you for drawing, because I think drawing has all the immediacy and flexibility and a quicker realization than anything else you can do. And I wanted to show you these drawings, because from them my work comes. Not specifically... If I know all a out it in drawing then I don't have to use a drawing to make a sculpture... These drawings are studies for sculpture, sometimes what sculpture is, sometimes what sculpture can never be. Sometimes they are atmospheres from which sculptural form in unconsciously selected during the labour process of producing form. Then again they may be amorphous floating direct statements in which I am the subject, and the drawing is the act." (David Smith: Sprays from Bolton Landing, Anthony d'Offay Gallery, Exhibition. Catalogue, London 1985, pp.6-7)