Eric Smith (painter)

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Eric Smith, 1954.

Eric John Smith (born August 5, 1919 in Brunswick , Melbourne , Victoria , † February 20, 2017 in Woollahra , Sydney , New South Wales ) was an Australian painter. He has won several of the most important Australian art prizes, three times the Archibald Prize , twice the Wynne Prize , three times the Sulman Prize and six times the Blake Prize .

Life

The young Eric Smith was a student of his uncle Frank, an amateur painter. He studied commercial art and painting at Brunswick Technical College , but had to interrupt his studies at the outbreak of World War II because he served as a truck driver in the Australian armed forces between 1939 and 1945.

Eric Smith washing windows in David Jones department store , Sydney 1954.

As part of the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme , Smith entered the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology after the war . In 1946 he married Dorothea Joy Darcy; five children were born from their connection. In 1952 the family moved to Sydney and lived in Kingsford with Joy's mother. Smith was making his living at the time as a window cleaner in the David Jones department store in their Market Street store .

A low-income Aussie battler quickly caught the attention of the art scene in Sydney when he won the Sulman Art Prize in 1953 and two awards at the Contemporary Art Society State Exhibition in 1955 for works created in his bedroom. Converted to Catholicism, Smith was the first abstract painter of religious art in Australia. In 1956 he received his first Blake Prize for religious art, which he later won five more times. In 1945 he took second place in the Archibald Prize , for which he submitted a self-portrait on canvas from army stocks. Smith's early price gains and proceeds from the sale of his works resulted in the purchase of a modest home on Small Street in Woollahra , which the family moved in in 1958. In 1962 he received the Helena Rubinstein Travel Art Scholarship .

In 1970 he received the Archibald Prize again , this time with a portrait of his friend, architect Neville Gruzman. In 1981 and 1982 he won the award again, with portraits of the art dealer Rudy Komon and the composer Peter Sculthorpe . Komon's portrait sparked dissent in the art world, as Smith's picture bore a striking resemblance to a photo taken in 1974 and the conditions for entering the competition for the Archibald Prize only allowed living models as models. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald , Smith said that he had seen and used the photo, but that Komon had also modeled for him several times. The artist John Bloomfield, who was excluded from the award in 1975 under similar circumstances, threatened legal action. The curators of the Archibald Prize chose Smith, including artists Judy Cassab and Kevin Connor , who received the award after Bloomfield was disqualified in 1975. Smith was awarded the Wynne Prize in 1972 and 1974 . His contribution to the visual arts of Australia was honored with the 1995 Australia Council Emeritus Award .

Smith retired from exhibitions in his later years, but was still productive. A patron bought much of his abstract works; Smith was able to live on the proceeds and buy new paints. When Smith's wife became frail, daughter Barbara moved back to her parents' home, where the family worked on a documentary entitled Not Finished Yet , which explores Smith's life, art, and desire for one final exhibition. Joy Smith passed away in 2010, after which the artist's painting became less for a few years. With the proceeds from the sale of the house in 2015, Smith moved into a care facility, where he painted almost every day again. Smith fell ill in February 2017 and died soon after in a hospital. He left behind his children Tony, Pamela, Barbara, Robyn and Peter.

Works (selection)

  • After the raid , 1942
  • Still life with fish , 1956
  • Silver light , 1958
  • Night Landscape , 1960
  • Evening glade , 1961
  • Portrait of Leonard Hessing , 1964
  • Forest of Flowers , 1969
  • Portrait of Rudy Komon , 1973
  • Portrait of Neville Gruzman , 1975
  • Orange abstract , 1996
  • Portrait of James Joyce
  • Fish, onions & the knife
  • Surreal still life

Exhibitions (selection)

  • Direction 1 , Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, NSW December 4, 1956 - December 10, 1956
  • Print Council of Australia Exhibition , Central Street Gallery, Sydney, NSW December 3, 1969 - December 20, 1969
  • Royal Easter Show: Art prize exhibitions 1970 , RAS Showgrounds, Moore Park, NSW from March 20, 1970 - March 31, 1970
  • In the picture: creative Australians from the National Library's portrait collection , National Portrait Gallery , Canberra, ACT from July 11, 1995 - January 15, 1996

In his work, Smith often used vivid colors that he applied in thick layers. His painting style changed greatly over the years, with his work gradually moving into linear abstraction. He began using calligraphic forms in his compositions in the 1960s. His vivid landscapes, portraits, abstractions and murals are part of the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney), the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra), the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne) and the Queensland Art Gallery (Brisbane) as well in numerous private and international collections.

Web links

Commons : Eric Smith  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f NLA-000035639591 . National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ Aussie battler . In: Macquarie Dictionary Blog: Archives March 15, 2012.
  3. ^ A b Painting in the Mid Twentieth Century - (3). In: Encyclopedia of Australia, WebsterWorld, p. 10.
  4. ↑ a b c d e Elissa Blake: Eric Smith, three-time winner of Archibald Prize. In: The Sydney Morning Herald of March 22, 2017.
  5. ^ Art Exhibitions. In: The Age (Melbourne), December 8, 1942, p. 3.
  6. ↑ Eric Smith b. 1919, artist (painter) . Sections Exhibitions, Collections . In: Design and Art Australia Online.
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Eric
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Smith, Eric John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian painter
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Brunswick , Melbourne , Victoria
DATE OF DEATH 20th February 2017
Place of death Woollahra , Sydney , New South Wales