Dida Gondola is the first of a series of four “mural wagons” by David Smith. Here, two circular shapes at the bottom of the sculpture suggest wheels, while the rectangular form completing the work could be seen as a painting-like field. The work’s title further evokes a sense of motion by incorporating the Spanish word for “wagon” (gondola), along with a nickname for the artist’s daughter Candida. The sculpture is Smith’s three-dimensional response to a series of bold, abstract paintings called Elegies to the Spanish Republic by his friend Robert Motherwell. Like Motherwell, Smith is considered part of the Abstract Expressionist movement. As a sculptor, however, Smith stands apart from most of the Abstract Expressionist artists who expressed emotional and psychological states through non-representational painting. In order to pay for art school, Smith held a job as a welder, influencing the industrial look that characterizes his investigation of three-dimensional form.