Фрэнк Джеффри Эдсон Смарт: Жизнь и творчество австралийского художника

Australian artist

Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart (26 July 1921 – 20 June 2013) was an expatriate Australian painter known for his precisionist depictions of urban landscapes that are "full of private jokes and playful allusions". Smart was born and educated in Adelaide where he worked as an Art teacher. After departing for Europe in 1948 he studied in Paris at La Grande Chaumière, and later at the Académie Montmartre under Fernand Léger. He returned to Australia 1951, living in Sydney, and began exhibiting frequently in 1957. In 1963, he moved to Italy. After a successful exhibition in London, he bought a rural property called "Posticcia Nuova" near Arezzo in Tuscany. He resided there with his partner until his death. A major retrospective of his works travelled around Australian art galleries 1999–2000. He started drawing at an early age. "My parents would give me large sheets of paper, often the backs of posters or calendars  anything". he taught art in schools for the South Australian Education Department in 1942–1947. In the early 1940s he accompanied local maritime artist, John Giles, in painting industrial landscapes at Port Adelaide. He joined the Royal South Australian Society of Arts around 1941 and was elected vice president in 1950. Smart travelled to Europe in 1948, studying in Paris at La Grand Chaumière and later the Académie Montmartre under Fernand Léger. "As my technique grew, I found I could paint those things I liked looking at, those slum streets behind the city apartments". In 1950 he lived on the island of Ischia in the bay of Naples, where he painted with Donald Friend, Michael Shannon and Jacqueline Hick. In 1951, he moved to Sydney and spent the next 2 years there as an art critic for the Daily Telegraph (1952–54), an arts compere called Phidias for the ABC children's radio programme The Argonauts, and a drawing teacher at the National Art School (1956–62). From 1956 to 1962, he also presented on ABC TV's Children's Hour. Smart was also employed by The King's School, Parramatta in 1954–56 as an Art teacher, following Jean Bellette (known as Mrs Haefliger) and John Passmore. He exhibited throughout this period at the Macquarie Galleries. Smart departed Australia for London on the Castel Felice out of Sydney just after Christmas 1963, driving to Greece with fellow painter Justin O'Brien. In 1965 he returned to Italy, and lived there for the rest of his life, regarding himself as an "Australian living abroad" and carrying an Australian passport. His last work, "Labyrinth", was completed in 2011, at which point he announced his retirement. Smart died of renal failure in Arezzo on 20 June 2013, aged 91.

Smart is one of Australia's best known artists with his almost iconic and unique imagery, heavily influenced by various artists and art forms. His stark portrayals of contemporary life, both realistic and absurd, have been the basis of many artistic discussions. Critics and admirers of Smart's paintings often debate his subject matter but in interviews Smart has preferred not to discuss his style; "Leaving the interpretation as the prerogative of the individual viewer." Smart states that he "paints a picture because he likes the shape", and when asked why his skies are always so gloomy and smog laden or why his faces never wear a smile, he claims "I need a dark sky for the composition, because pale blue at the top of a frame looks nothing  [and] because a smiling face is too hard to paint". Some critics have argued that Smart's work comments on modern urban alienation, a post industrial landscape that has fallen from human control. Others have cast him as a realist, hyper realist, 'off beat classicalist' and a metaphysical painter. Some critics have even referred to Smart's paintings as portraying 'Orwellian gloom' – a statement referring, in particular, to George Orwell's literary political masterpiece, Nineteen Eighty Four. James Gleeson believes that Smart's paintings are "too real to be real"; and believes that his realist portrayals of 20th century life are nothing more than superb geometrical compositions and bold colour, of man in his naturalistic, man made environment. It is true, for instance, that trees are rarely seen in Jeffrey Smart's artworks, and the only grass is that growing between concrete stones, but as Smart claimed: "an artist has to be moved to move his viewers", and Smart was moved by man in nature – man made nature – not concerned with typical Australian landscape. "I like living in the 20th century – to me the world has never been more beautiful. I am trying to paint the real world I live in, as beautifully as I can with my own eyes It's obvious a bunch of flowers or a billabong is beautiful, and I love natural beauty, but I am not moved by it. to me composition is everything". Smart believed that people should view art with their eyes and not their head.

Smart's paintings may seem to visit an untouched area of art, but he has been influenced by other artists and art forms, especially from classical ancient art through his travels. An interest in architecture took Smart to Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Italy and Yemen. This Mediterranean journey led to the purchase of a three hundred year old villa in Arezzo, Italy where he lived for the rest of his long life. It had in fact, always been an early goal for Smart was to become an architect; he was trained as a draftsman and sometimes considered himself in some ways a frustrated architect. Piero della Francesca, a Renaissance painter and mathematician, was one of classical influences on Smart's work. Smart said that seeing Piero's works was "like falling in love" His favourite of Piero's paintings was The Flagellation of Christ. He shared with Piero, in addition to the geometrics and composition, the spatial grandeur and 'ineloquence' found present in each of their works. He was also influenced by Renaissance Dutch painter Rogier van der Weyden. Smart mostly painted with oil, acrylic and watercolours, generally using the bold primary colours – yellow, blue and red – and dark greys for his skies. This created an unusual effect in his works as the foregrounds of his paintings are fully lit despite the dark sky. His process of painting was a long and arduous one, resulting in barely a dozen finished canvases a year. "I always do a lot of preliminary drawings, moving the forms, the shadows, the buildings the figures around the canvas till I get that perfect composition  "

Much of Smart's direct artistic stimulation came from, literally, a passing glance as he was driving: "My paintings have their origins in a passing glance". "Sometimes I'll drive around for months  despair, nothing, nothing, then suddenly I will see something that seizes me: a shape, a combination of shapes, a play of light or shadows and I send up a prayer because I know I have the gem of a picture."

Smart's work and life have been the subject of several documentaries, the most recent, titled Master of Stillness, by filmmaker Catherine Hunter. Master of Stillness records the creation of Labyrinth (2011), Smart's final work before retiring aged 91. Critic John McDonald calls it "a farewell picture – a last definitive statement that rules a line under a long and distinguished career". Hunter visited Smart at his farmhouse in Tuscany and the painter took her to some of the places near Arezzo that have long inspired him – the concrete streetscapes and urban wastelands that define his vision. "If a good painting comes off, it has a stillness, it has a perfection, and that's as great as anything that I think a musician or a poet can do", said Smart.

Self Portrait at Papini's, 1984–1985 85 cm × 115 cm, Sold at world record price of A$1,260,000 on 27 August 2014. Autobahn in the Black Forest II, 1979–80, (oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, signed lower right: Jeffrey Smart, 100 × 65 cm), sold for a record A$1,020,000 at auction by Deutscher and Hackett in Melbourne on 20 April 2011. A list of sales of 670 of Smart's work can be found at Australian Art Sales Digest.

Jeffrey Street in Hawthorn, South Australia, was named after Smart by his father who was involved in the sub division of that area. In his memoir, Not Quite Straight, Smart comments that there is a bend in Jeffrey Street, and hence it, too, is "Not Quite Straight". In 1951, Smart was awarded the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize. He was conferred the honorary title of Doctor of the University by the University of Sydney in 1990, and by the University of South Australia in 2011. Smart was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for his service to the visual arts, particularly through his distinctive portrayal of the urban landscape, and through the encouragement offered to young artists. Jeffrey Smart was a patron and active supporter of the Tait Memorial Trust in London, a charity established by Isla Baring OAM, the daughter of Sir Frank Tait of JC Williamson's, to support young Australian performing artists in the UK. Following his death, the University of South Australia announced on 21 June 2013 that the newest building at its City West campus, to be opened in 2014, would be named the "Jeffrey Smart Building".