Page 47 - Studio International - June 1970

telescoped. Lately he's been moving house total vision, the walk-along picture, the box Jewish Museum, New York, 1968. (Contains
(though he's moved around a lot before) so turned inside out, the box as container and collected statements from 1963, 1966, 1968.)
the period of gestation may have been ex- something that contains nothing, a room to Catalogue, Richard Smith exhibit, British
tended. But there were drawings in his studio fill a room, the painting on the wall and the Pavilion, Venice Biennale, 1970. (Contains
in September 1968 relevant to March 1970. painting as the wall, the idea of drowning in a statement entitled Pre-occupations, which is
He says that at the moment he feels himself in glass of beer or living in a semi-detached also published in Art and Artists, June 1970).
a kind of plateau where ideas of around three cigarette packet. The unpublished text of an interview with
years ago are still viable. Before 'it was a real The painting was made for the exhibition Anne Seymour on which the Venice catalogue
progression, a real addition to one's possibili- `Environment I' held at the Architectural material is based.
ties, plus also a rejection of possibilities.' Institute in New York, and it is a public sort
Underlying Smith's work is some of the most of statement implying a private experience.
exhaustively connected thinking. Whatever It began 'in the form of a paper box, a quite
he does next it will not be unrelated to what simple put tab A into slot A type of box, and
has gone before, however much he expresses it retains this bluntness of structure, a press-
interest in the work of Richard Tuttle or out, fold and glue building'. It also retains the
Richard Long. That Smith never tries to avoid idea of the painting as something to be
current ideas is always manifest. manipulated, held in the hand.
Although it is the earliest work going to Perhaps Smith's description of his paintings
Venice, Gazebo seems to offer a kind of epi- as 'large scale origami' is revealing, 'Origami' 10
grammatic summary of Smith's thinking is the Japanese art of paper folding, an in- Clairol Wall 1967
Acrylic on canvas
about painting over the last ten years or so. tellectual and cultural pastime. The intellec- 243 X 975 x 91cm
Listing some of the things it suggests, there is tual aspects, the interest in the art of living, Courtesy Galerie Denise René—Hans Mayer, Krefeld
the idea of splitting and joining the image, the spiritual/material/sensual divisions of life, an 11
Riverfall 1969
idea of the square in sequence, of movement element of ritual, the acceptance of it. All Oil and polyurethane on canvas
in time and space, the metamorphosis of the seem evocative of his kind of art. q 198 X 685 x 35cm
Coll: Tate Gallery, London
square, one form enveloping or superceding
12
another, the organic box, the picture fused Statements by the artist are from the following Vista 1963
Oil on canvas
with its surroundings, changing perspectives sources :
77 x 1171 in.
in space, a tent, seeing and not being seen, Catalogue, Richard Smith Exhibition, The Coll: Tate Gallery, London