Page 38 - Studio International - April 1965

J ack Smith Movement and sound in new paintings

by Charles S. Spencer

1 Jack Smith is one of a small group of English painters, College of Art after war-time service in the Royal Air
Painted Relief, 1963
40 x 42 in. including Pasmore and Richard Hamilton, who work in Force. He is thus part of a generation whose develop-
2 relative obscurity, developing aesthetic-cum-social ment was retarded ; only now, at the age of 37, can he
Inside and Outside No. 1, 1964
15 x 17 x 6 1/2 in. themes of a personal, philosophic character rare in be said to have reached artistic maturity. However, if the
British art. This kind of cerebral artist, because of his current fashionable overstatement of youthful talent is
deep sincerity, the fact that he cannot easily be linked a guide, he should be grateful for the opportunity for
to national or international movements, and whose work slow development.
requires study rather than slick definition, tends to be Not that he lacked early success and some of its
denied easy public acclaim. attendant anxieties. At his first exhibition at the Beaux
Smith was born in Sheffield in 1928 (a contemporary Arts in 1952 he was immediately linked with Bratby
of George Fullard, interestingly enough) and only took and Middleditch in the 'Kitchen Sink' school. This was
up serious study at St. Martins School and the Royal an error, if perhaps an understandable one. Smith, even