Gordon Smith: The act of painting

by Ian M. Thom

Gordon Appelbe Smith, painter and printmaker, was born in Sussex, England in 1919. He emigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba with his family in 1933. In 1937 he studied at the Winnipeg School of Art. He exhibited for the first time in his career in 1938 with the Manitoba Society of Artists. Smith joined the Canadian infantry and was posted for service in Britain, Scotland, and then Sicily, where he was severely injured and was discharged from the army. In 1946 he graduated from the Vancouver School of Art and began teaching there a few months later. In 1947, Smith had a solo exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1951, he traveled to study at the California School of Fine Arts. In 1955, Gordon Smith won first prize at the first Biennial of Canadian Painting at the National Gallery of Canada for his painting Structure With Red Sun. In 1956, he joined the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, and exhibited at the Guggenheim International show in New York. In 1961, he had his first commercial show at the New Design Gallery in Vancouver. In the 70’s, Smith had several solo exhibitions at the Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver, and the Marlborough-Godard Gallery in Montreal and Toronto. In 1976, the Vancouver Art Gallery held a retrospective on Gordon Smith’s work. In the 80’s Smith continued to exhibit with Bau-Xi gallery in Vancouver and Mira Godard Gallery in Toronto. In 1994, Smith withdrew from the Bau-Xi Gallery to exhibit at the Equinox Gallery in Vancouver. In 1997, Gordon Smith had a retrospective exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery. In 1996, Gordon Smith was appointed to the Order of Canada. In 2001, he was appointed to the Order of B.C. for outstanding achievement. His works can be found in the collections of numerous Canadian and international museums, and corporate collections across Canada. He is regarded as one of the leading abstract artists in Canada today

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are 2 major books about Gordon Appelbe Smith - this one, written in 1997, and 'Gordon Smith: Don't Look Back' written 17 years later. In my biased opinion 'The Act of Painting' is the better of the two. Both books give an excellent account of his childhood in England, family move to Canada and his beginnings in commercial art. His tour of duty in WW2, return to Canada, time with the Vancouver School of Art and the beginnings of his painting career are very well covered with a nice selection of historic photos as well. The book is structured in three parts - the first by Ian Thom covers his life and development as an artist with a great selection of artworks covered chronologically up to the present day (1997). The middle part is a catalog of his paintings, also arranged chronologically, then the third part, written by Andrew Hunter is more of an art critics evaluation of Gordon's evolving styles, methodology, and inspirations. Once again though, this part is also chronological and very well illustrated. So as you read the book it's like hitting rewind twice and going through his life and work three times which keeps it very interesting visually. I tend to like his earlier paintings from the 1950's and early 60's before he got into hard edged abstraction, which he eventually set aside and moved forward in new directions as he always did. The amazing thing about Gordon was his endless journey of artistic discovery, always mastering new styles, methods and themes in his work, right up to the end at age 100. His silkscreens and serigraphs were not given much coverage though, which is a shame as he did some great works in that format throughout his career.
I found the other book, 'Don't Look Back' was far too repetitive in it's coverage of his later output from the last years of his life - pages and pages of near identical paintings made the second half of that book very dull indeed by comparison.