Mining his background as an industrial welder of trains and tanks during World War II, David Smith made sculptures from large, steel shapes that vaguely resemble humans. Smith created March Sentinel in March of 1961, using a technique called “burnishing” to rub and scratch different marks on the steel surface. These gestural marks resemble the painted gestures in the Abstract Expressionist paintings nearby. Through works like this one, Smith started bridging the gap between the abstract and the representational.

Smith placed March Sentinel outdoors on his property, Bolton Landing, in upstate New York, along with other sculptures from the Sentinels series. In the natural world, these sculptures served as sentries watching over the land.