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An artist who changed the face of sculpture, yet went almost unnoticed in Britain, is being honored with an exhibition at Tate Modern, The Independent reports.

The David Smith retrospective, which opens today, includes more than 70 artworks, from experiments in the 1930s to sculpture made not long before Smith was killed in a car crash in 1965.

Smith, an American artist from the Midwest, was notable in his use of industrial metals, his liberation of sculpture from the plinth and his humanist subject matter, said curator Francis Morris. However, early on, his works were not considered sculpture, and they have not been widely recognized in Britain until now.

I hope he will be the subject of a great retrieval, Morris added. Before David Smith started making welded steel sculpture, there were no more than 50 welded sculptures in the world. He was in at the beginning of a tradition. But like a number of really distinctive individuals in the 20th century, hes not a member of a club.

The exhibition runs through Jan. 21.

The Independent: US welder who became the father of steel sculpture wins Tate's acclaim

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