A truncated version of a much bigger survey organized by the Oakland Museum, it crams together nearly 40 of his bulky improvisational ceramic sculptures, many of them in the shapes of giant bottles and plates; a few early Abstract Expressionist paintings, and several recent works on paper.

The bulkiest sculpture in the show ("the biggest piece of African sculpture I know," Dr. Vogel said), a seven-foot Urhobo mother and child from Nigeria, seems almost held up by space.

( Kimmelman) * Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum: 'David Smith: A Centennial,' David Smith is best known for his worst work, bulky sculptures of the "important" kind that museums and banks like to buy.

Disembodied mouths and eyes are projected onto soft white, rather bulky biomorphic sculptures whose irregularities add further distortions.

And there is the advantage of thin, flat pictures over gross and bulky sculptures.

David Smith is best known for his worst work, bulky sculptures of the "important" kind that museums and banks like to buy.

Bridgehampton In his delightful show at the Dia Center for the Arts, the sculptor John Chamberlain, known for his bulky, flamboyant sculptures from car parts, gets small.

Paul Kittelson's "Woolly Mammoth" is a bulky, 12-foot tall sculpture that looks like a replica of a replica of a prehistoric mammoth in a natural-history museum.

Smith is one of those artists best known for their worst work, in his case bulky sculptures of the "important" kind that museums and banks like to buy.