Page 45 - Studio International - June 1970

8 [RICHARD SMITH'S WORK IS BEING SHOWN IN
Plum Meridian 1968
Acrylic on canvas THE BRITISH PAVILION AT THE VENICE
150 x 450 x 50cm
Courtesy Galeria dell'Ariete, Milan BIENNALE, WHICH OPENS ON JUNE 21. A
RETROSPECTIVE OF HIS GRAPHICS AND
9
Amazone 1969 MULTIPLES IS AT ARNOLFINI GALLERY, BRISTOL,
Oil and polyurethane on canvas UNTIL JUNE 18.]
137 x 457 x 38cm
Coll: The Hon. James Dugdale, London

development in stretching canvas loosely and as calligraphy. Yet materials and methods do
has already made some drawings. It is a suggest spontaneity by implication— cut-and-
matter of dealing with the technical problems folded-paper drawings, fast painting as is his
and perhaps of reconciling this different view habit—and help to redress the balance.
of the canvas with his interest in paint as a Though the structure has to be fixed in ad-
substance. vance there is a new confrontation in the last
He has talked in a faintly wistful way about stages: 'The time before the necessary formali-
the in-built gap between inspiration and zation is more tender—when the consequential
realization. Painting this way isn't something and the inconsequential have equal status
which can be 'fresh' every day (Smith the and sometimes prove interchangeable.'
good consumer). He isn't the first artist to Ideas aren't date-stamped on paintings. Look-
dream of treating the canvas as paper, or paint ing back at Smith's work as a whole, time gets