Page 39 - Studio International - April 1965

at that time, was not concerned with realism. As he puts outside rather than inside', he explained. 'It is very
it himself, 'Art is to do with perception more than important for light to emanate from a painting. A
seeing'. As a young artist he painted the objects around Bonnard looks as though there is a fantastic kind of
him but sought a reality beyond their appearance. lamp inside the thing. Objects on a table sparkle and
An early painting Creation and Crucifixion which won dance if light is drawn across them'.
a John Moore's prize and is now in the Walker Art From 1956 onwards he painted not only light but
Gallery, Liverpool, is a key statement in his develop- silence, as David Sylvester pointed out in the catalogue
ment. Not a break but a deeper concentration of his to the 1960 exhibition at Matthiesen's. Sylvester com-
study of light on moving heads and figures, or stationary pared Smith's work to the visionary paintings of John
objects. This was already evident in a 1 952 painting of Nash, a most perceptive reference and indeed one which,
a snowstorm and other all-white studies concerned despite stylistic changes, remains valid. In discussing
with interior light. 'A lot of painting receives light from this period Smith said, 'I like a painting to have a

kind of silence, as in Vermeer whom I love. Even those
concerned with sound should have the quality of
silence'. And when we went on to discuss 'movement
and silence' he agreed with my reference to the Ucello
battle scene in the National Gallery as an important
example, even a forerunner of Futurism.
The more one studies Smith's work the more one
traces a logical sequence. Bonnard, in the sense
referred to, Cezanne leading to the Cubism of Braque
and Picasso, and Futurism, as exercises in seeing
objects from all sides at once and breaking them up into
an illogical sequence, the stillness of Vermeer, the
visionary intensity of Nash so closely allied with Pas-
more, Mondrian—all these are admitted and recognis-
able influences. But their integration has been un-
conscious and unpremeditated, working within the
artist's mind and affecting his vision. 'Every change
takes place without my being aware of it. I want painting
to exist on many levels. I like art to be a contemplative
thing; not instant painting, hitting hard quickly'.
Reticence is inherent in Smith's character; his love of
Vermeer is bound up with the fact that one is hardly
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