David Smith with Australia (1951), outside his home in Bolton Landing, New York in 1951.    (Photo: David Smith/The Estate of David Smith, Licensed by VAGA, New York)

3. “David Smith: A Centennial,” at the Guggenheim
Sculpture is so difficult for museums to show that even David Smith, the greatest American sculptor of the twentieth century, is today more admired than exhibited. In “David Smith: A Centennial,” the Guggenheim not only collected his work in unusual depth, it also created an installation that was a tour de force. The eccentric shape of the Guggenheim overwhelms most works of art, but Smith’s sculpture appeared completely at home there. His surreal pieces came alive in the open space and the radiant daylight, and his geometries made sublime sense. Art and architecture, in a brilliant rhyme.