Friday, June 21, 2013

Jeffrey Smart 1921-2013

In 1987, while on art-class excursion to the Queensland Art Gallery, I saw Jeffrey Smart's The Traveller.


I can distinctly remember barely wanting to tear myself away from it. It was the first Jeffrey Smart painting I'd ever seen. I fell in love with it completely and it is the only painting I can remember from that excursion. God knows why we were there, we certainly weren't there to see The Traveller.

For me, any connection I may have to a piece of art will always return to Jeffrey Smart and his urbane, urban work.

Sadly, he died yesterday. As everyone ends up doing. David Attenborough'll be next to go.

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17 comments:

  1. brismodJune 21, 2013 at 8:50 PM

    Everyone's dying MMMC. And if David kicks the bucket, I'll be blaming you!. Just caught up on your blog...why are your kids growing up so quickly??? Hope to see you next week. xx

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  2. MakeminemidcenturyJune 21, 2013 at 10:06 PM

    You will see me next week! Unless I get hit by a bus. If I do get hit by a bus I hope it resembles one above. I saw David A. on television the other evening. He's looking aged.

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  3. FionaJune 22, 2013 at 2:48 AM

    I've been very concerned about David Attenborough myself.

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    1. MakeminemidcenturyJune 24, 2013 at 1:47 AM

      Fiona, I'm glad you're seeing what I'm seeing. Newspapers pre-write their obituaries, you know. I bet The Times has David's ready to roll.

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  4. PatsyJune 22, 2013 at 5:29 AM

    I only discovered him a few years ago but loved his work immediately. A great loss.

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  5. DebJune 22, 2013 at 7:53 AM

    I love this painting.
    xo

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    1. MakeminemidcenturyJune 24, 2013 at 1:49 AM

      I love you and your Canadian loyalty to this blog.xo

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  6. Dana@Mid2ModJune 22, 2013 at 8:55 AM

    The painting is mesmerizing. The way he captured the metal on the bus on the right looks more like a photograph than a painting. Amazing!

    Coincidentally, my daughter and I were just talking about actors, musicians and artists that we would truly miss when they die. This came up in the context of James Gandolfini's dying. Then a couple of days later, a friend brought up the same topic in the context of the new Maggie Smith film. Now you. I guess when public figures die, we all start thinking about mortality.

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    1. MakeminemidcenturyJune 24, 2013 at 1:52 AM

      You're probably right. I think it's because these figures become part of our individual lives ... they sort of make up who we are and are a part of what we enjoy and value. And then when they're gone, we feel like we lose a bit of ourselves. When Maurice Sendak died I also felt some loss.

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  7. elegancemaisonJune 22, 2013 at 2:02 PM

    Thank you MMMC for introducing me to Jeffrey Smart. Know-all Mr EM knew all about him of course and told me that there is a major exhibition of Australian art at the Royal Academy in London this September.
    http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/australia/

    I can't see any mention of Smart but since our visits to the Gallery of NSW we have become very keen devotees of Autralian art. Actually knocked sideways by it.

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    1. MakeminemidcenturyJune 24, 2013 at 1:58 AM

      Hello Lady! We have some cracker Australian artists. I love a high-brow know-all. Mr EM appears to fit that category. I hope he wears cord pants to boot! I'd like to hear about which artists you and Mr EM favour. Margaret Olley was fabulous as was Sydney Nolan. I wish I was in London for the Lichenstein exhibit.

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  8. DMCJune 22, 2013 at 2:58 PM

    That painting would look smashing on my wall. (sigh
    Bette Davis said " Growing old is not for sissies".
    My sentiments exactly.

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    1. MakeminemidcenturyJune 24, 2013 at 1:58 AM

      Growing old. I'm thinking of starting to take a morning dose of krill oil.

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  9. NeenJune 22, 2013 at 4:54 PM

    Thank you for introducing me to Jeffrey Smart's work. I see the same haunting qualities in his work that I see in Edward Hopper's work. I know that we all leave this place sometime, but I like to think of art as a form of time travel that allows us to visit with the great, and not so great, long after they have left this world.

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    1. MakeminemidcenturyJune 24, 2013 at 2:01 AM

      Neen, Edward Hopper is similar to Jeffrey Smart ... that sort of abandoned in the urban quality.

      I like your take on art. My husband always marvels at the marble work of the renaissance. Imagine having Michaelangelo's talent chipping away at some old stone with the anatomical precision he had. Awesome.

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  10. objects of whimsyJuly 13, 2013 at 5:52 PM

    Jeffrey Smart is/was one of our most influential artists. His work effects me too and I remember his work as a teenager is the Cahill Expressway. Since that time I was a fan. I hope they do a retrospective that would be fabulous to see all of his works together. I like Edward Hopper too

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