Jack Smith (18 June 1928 – 11 June 2011) was a British realist and, later, abstract artist.

Life

Jack Smith was born in 1928 in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. Smith studied at Sheffield College of Art (1944–1946),

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's became part of t ...

(1948–1950) and the

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...

(1950–1953).Flowers London: Jack Smith Retrospective Catalogue, At the RCA, Smith studied under John Minton, Ruskin Spear and

Carel Weight Carel Victor Morlais Weight, (10 September 1908 – 13 August 1997) was an English painter. Biography Weight was born in Paddington in 1908. His father was a bank cashier and his mother, who was of Swedish and German descent, was a chirop ...

Work

During the 1950s, Smith's early work was in a neo-realist style known as "The

Kitchen Sink Kitchen sink may refer to: * ''Freaks of Nature'' (film), a 2015 comedy horror film, also known as ''Kitchen Sink'' * ''Kitchen Sink'', a 1989 horror short directed by Alison Maclean * ''Kitchen Sink'' (TV series), cookery series on Food Network ...

School" featuring domestic subjects. In the 1960s Smith abandoned realism and adopted a brightly coloured, abstract style comparable to those of

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

and

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...

incorporating

Constructivism Constructivism may refer to: Art and architecture * Constructivism (art), an early 20th-century artistic movement that extols art as a practice for social purposes * Constructivist architecture, an architectural movement in Russia in the 1920s a ...

and Biomorphism with elements of

hieroglyphic Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...

and musical notation. Smith continued to develop and work in this style and did not return to realism.

Recognition

*First prize at the first '' John Moores Liverpool Exhibition'' (1956) *Shown at

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

(1956) *Retrospective at the

Whitechapel Art Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fir ...

(1959)Tate Collection
Jack Smith Biography
/ref> * National Prize at

Guggenheim International Award The Guggenheim International Award was established in 1956 as "both a recognition of outstanding achievements in the visual arts and an important manifestation of international goodwill". A shortlist of artists and works were selected by juries to ...

s * Touring Retrospective organised by ''Sunderland Arts Centre'' (1977) * 80th Birthday Retrospective at the ''Flowers East gallery'' (2008) * The

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

held an exhibition of his work, 'Jack Smith: Abstract Portraits' (2015) and holds several portraits of him in its collection.

References

External links

*
Works in the Tate collection

80th Birthday Retrospective

Alumni of the Royal College of Art 1928 births 2011 deaths Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art {{UK-painter-20thC-stub