Details

Provenance

The Douglas Gallery Limited, Vancouver Private Collection, Vancouver Catalogue Note Although the mastery of his recent paintings of tangled underbrush in summer or winter has been a source of his recent and well-deserved acclaim, Smith has a long and distinguished track record that has not yet been studied or shown in a major national retrospective, an event that is long overdue. Rainbow , for example, is from the early 1970s and shows just how strong Smith's work was at that period of his career. Work from the 1950s and 1960s can show similar abilities at work, although his production, because of his teaching load at UBC, was not as substantial then as it has been in the last decade or more. The vibrant colours and original composition in this painting may owe something to Richard Diebenkorn, whose West Coast sensibility is not unlike Smith's for reasons of geography and light. But it also was undeniably from the Vancouver of the time, when it was a cauldron of activities in various media and a time when experiment, boldness, and audacity were much in evidence. Rainbow is a wonderfully complex and powerful painting that should invite a reassessment of all of Smith's earlier work.

Catalog summary

Gordon Appelbe Smith Rainbow signed and titled on the reverse, dated 1966 on a label on the reverse oil on canvas 112 by 127 cm. 44 by 50 in. Provenance The Douglas Gallery Limited, Vancouver Private Collection, Vancouver Catalogue Note Although the mastery of his recent paintings of tangled underbrush in summer or winter has been a source of his recent and well-deserved acclaim, Smith has a long and distinguished track record that has not yet been studied or shown in a major national retrospective, an event that is long overdue. Rainbow , for example, is from the early 1970s and shows just how strong Smith's work was at that period of his career. Work from the 1950s and 1960s can show similar abilities at work, although his production, because of his teaching load at UBC, was not as substantial then as it has been in the last decade or more. The vibrant colours and original composition in this painting may owe something to Richard Diebenkorn, whose West Coast sensibility is not unlike Smith's for reasons of geography and light. But it also was undeniably from the Vancouver of the time, when it was a cauldron of activities in various media and a time when experiment, boldness, and audacity were much in evidence. Rainbow is a wonderfully complex and powerful painting that should invite a reassessment of all of Smith's earlier work.