Page 41 - Studio International - April 1965

Jack Smith's new paintings are
currently on view at the
Grosvenor Gallery, London.
3

multiple image, illogical or unconcerned with sequence
or perspective, reminiscent of Egyptian or primitive
painting, or Byzantine icons and mosaics. But there is
nothing haphazard or naive in their assembling. Smith
is never less than a conscious artist seeking considered
balance and totality of effect. One of these remarkable
compositions contains 110 tiny paintings, rather like a
block of postage stamps or transfer forms—from which,
indeed, the idea derived. Each is concerned with a par-
ticular image, or aspects of the same image. The aim is
partly descriptive but, as in Cubism and Futurism, also
concerned with multiple vision and a time sequence.
The colour too, strong and primary, is used for specific
emotional or rhythmic purposes. 'Yellow' for instance,
he says, 'is used intentionally as a kind of dance'.
The most recent series on Sea and Aeroplanes are
even more complex. The largest is six feet square. They
vary from combinations of tiny images or more simple
effects centred on large blue circles. In the Sea group
the images are based on swimmers and floating objects
and the visual play of space, moving backwards and
forwards over the whole area of the painting, again
harks back to Cubism.
Suddenly, as we analysed and discussed his highly
stylised paintings, Smith exclaimed, 'Explanations are
like having to make rational whatever magic one has.
I doubt whether art ought to be written about at all. We
live in an age of explanation'. I sympathised and agreed,
especially as I spend so much time and energy in the
near-impossible task of forcing words to try and describe
the mysterious activity called art, and my own equally
shrouded reactions to it.
Finally we agreed that these complex works are best
described as Diagrams of Experience. 'I like the straight

face of a diagram. I don't think this disqualifies emotion ;
you can paint dispassionately. A painting can be
diagrammatic rather than descriptive ... I feel I have no
choice in what I do. Certain things happen and one is
drawn to objects as experiences. I'm suspicious of
choice, I suppose because I work instinctively, drawn
to subjects without knowing why. Looking back, they
always seem the same subject. When I finish painting
I realise I've been there before—although on a different
level or wavelength'. n