LETTERS
metal sculpture but the phrase itself
that has become trite and hackneyed.
When first coined, it was a fresh and
apt description of some of the most
original and innovative sculpture ever
made; more recently, it has been ap–
plied quite indiscriminately to just
about anything linear and three-di–
mensional.
If
Mr. Ferber had read my
monograph on David Smith (Abbe–
ville Press, 1984), he would know that
I am extremely familiar with "earlier
slender sculpture" and hardly regard it
pejoratively.
I am sorry that Mr. Ferber should
feel that my concentration on what is
in
front of me and my attempt to find
words for my experience of that work
amounts to neglect of its predecessors.
Why does he assume that serious dis–
cussion of the recent carries with it the
preconception that recent is better?
Karen Wilkin
New York
335
