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Eric Smith (artist)

{{Short description|Australian artist}}

{{Other people|Eric Smith|Eric Smith (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2017}}

{{Use Australian English|date=June 2015}}

{{Infobox artist

| name = Eric Smith

| image =Eric Smith, 1954.JPG

| image_size =200

| caption =Eric Smith in 1954.

| birth_name = Eric John Smith

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1919|8|5}}

| birth_place = Brunswick, Melbourne, Australia

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2017|2|20|1919|8|5}}

| death_place = Sydney, NSW, Australia

| nationality = Australian

| field = Painting

| training =

| movement =

| works =

| patrons =

| awards =

| website =

}}

Eric John Smith (5 August 1919 – 20 February 2017) was an Australian artist. Smith won the Archibald Prize for portraiture three times; the Wynne Prize twice; the Sulman Prize three times; and the Blake Prize for Religious Art six times.

Life and work

File:Roger Pryke 2Mg.jpgEric Smith was born and raised in Brunswick, Melbourne.{{cite web|title= Biography |publisher= Eric Smith, Australian Artist |url= http://www.ericsmithartist.com.au/ |accessdate= 2008-03-31}} At the age of 17 Smith undertook the study of Commercial Art and Painting at the Brunswick Technical School and joined the Victorian Artists Society. In 1940 Smith joined the Australian Army for the remainder of the Second World War.

Upon the end of the war, Smith returned to Melbourne and pursued his artistic ambitions. In 1945, a self-portrait painted on an army canvas was runner-up for the Archibald Prize. In 1956 Smith had his work shown in the Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, during the 'Direction One' exhibition. The success of this exhibition led to Smith's work being included in the 1963 exhibition of Australian art shown at the Tate Gallery in London. Whilst in London in 1963, Smith gained further international recognition after winning the Helena Rubenstein Art Award. In 1970 Smith won the Archibald again for his portrait of Sydney architect Neville Gruzman.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Eric |title=Gruzman — architect, 1970 |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/146.1971/ |access-date=5 June 2023 |website=Art Gallery of New South Wales}} The award announced on 22 January 1971 came 25 years after his second place.{{Cite web |last=Nicklin |first=Lenore |date=22 January 2021|title=From the Archives, 1971: Archibald winner waited 25 years |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/from-the-archives-1971-archibald-winner-waited-25-years-20210107-p56sd5.html |access-date=5 June 2023 |website=Sydney Morning Herald}}

Smith's second winning portrait of art dealer and gallery owner Rudy Komon entered in the 1981 Archibald Prize{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Eric |title=Rudy Komon 1981 |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/237.1982/ |access-date=5 June 2023 |website=Art Gallery of New South Wales}} caused controversy within the art world. In 1975 John Bloomfield's winning entry was disqualified due to his portraiture of Tim Burstall being painted from a photograph. It is a condition of entry that all portraits be painted from life rather than interpretations of photographs.{{cite web |title= History: Chronology of events 1900—2007 |publisher= Art Gallery of New South Wales,Archibald Prize 08 |url= http://www.thearchibaldprize.com.au/history/chronology |accessdate= 2008-03-31}} Bloomfield asserted that Smith's portraiture of Komon resembled a photograph taken of the subject in 1974 and hence was in breach of the competition rules. Bloomfield threatened legal action to prevent the prize being awarded to Smith. The controversy subsided when Komon came to Smith's defence and said he had sat for Smith many times over the previous twenty-one years.

In 1982 Smith won the Archibald for the second year in a row and his third time with a portrait of Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Eric |title=Winner: Archibald Prize 1982, Peter Sculthorpe |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/prizes/archibald/1982/18772/ |access-date=5 June 2023|website=Art Gallery of New South Wales}}

Eric Smith was recognised for his contribution to the visual arts with an Australia Council Emeritus Award in 1995.

A total of 13 paintings are in the Art Gallery of NSW collection.{{Cite web |last=Smith |first=Eric |title=Works by Eric John Smith (13) |url=https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/?artist_id=smith-eric-john |access-date=5 June 2023 |website=Art Gallery of New South Wales}}

Awards

  • 1944 Australia at War, War on Land Prize
  • 1948 Catholic Centenary Art Prize
  • 1948 CRTS Shell Company Prize
  • 1948 CRTS Norman Bros Prize
  • 1950 Victorian Artists’ Society, ‘60 Drawings’ Herald Prize
  • 1953 Berrima Art Prize (Mural)
  • 1955 Contemporary Art Society
  • 1955 Contemporary Art Society, Madach Prize
  • 1955 Adelaide Advertiser Prize
  • 1956 Bathurst Art Prize
  • 1960 Journalists’ Club Prize
  • 1962 Royal Art Society of New South Wales Easter Show Prize
  • 1963 Helena Rubenstein Art Award
  • 1965 Roy H. Taffs Contemporary Art Society Award
  • 1967 Darcy Morris Memorial Prize
  • 1969 Royal Art Society of New South Wales, Portrait Prize
  • 1975 Muswellbrook Art Prize

{{s-start}}

{{s-ach|aw}}

{{s-bef|before=Charles Doutney}}

{{s-ttl|title=Sulman Prize|years=1953
for Convicts Berrima 1839,
Mural at Old Court House, Berrima}}

{{s-aft|after=Wallace Thornton}}

{{s-bef|before=Donald Friend}}

{{s-ttl|title=Blake Prize for Religious Art|years=1956
for The Scourged Christ}}

{{s-aft|after=Elwyn Lynn}}

{{s-bef|before=Elwyn Lynn}}

{{s-ttl|title=Blake Prize for Religious Art|years=1958
for The Moment Christ Died
1959
for Christ is Risen}}

{{s-aft|after=John Coburn}}

{{s-bef|before=Stanislaus Rapotec}}

{{s-ttl|title=Blake Prize for Religious Art|years=1962
for Eucharistic Landscape}}

{{s-aft|after=Leonard French}}

{{s-bef|before=Roger Kemp}}

{{s-ttl|title=Blake Prize for Religious Art|years=1969
for The Apostles Creed
1970
Co-winner with Roger Kemp
for Christ's Flesh: Living, Suffering and Resurrected}}

{{s-aft|after=Desiderius Orban}}

{{s-bef|before=Ray Crooke}}

{{s-ttl|title=Archibald Prize|years=1970
for Gruzman—Architect}}

{{s-aft|after=Clifton Pugh}}

{{s-bef|before=Margaret Woodward}}

{{s-ttl|title=Wynne Prize|years=1972
for Falling Bark}}

{{s-aft|after=Clem Millwood}}

{{s-bef|before=Peter Powditch}}

{{s-ttl|title=Sulman Prize|years=1973
for The Painter Transmogrified and Mrs. Smith}}

{{s-aft|after=Keith Looby}}

{{s-bef|before=Clem Millwood}}

{{s-ttl|title=Wynne Prize|years=1974
for Redfern Landscape}}

{{s-aft|after=Robert Juniper}}

{{s-bef|before=Not awarded
(Wes Walters, 1979)}}

{{s-ttl|title=Archibald Prize|years=1981
for Rudy Komon
1982
for Peter Sculthorpe}}

{{s-aft|after=Nigel Thomson}}

{{s-bef|before=Guan Wei}}

{{s-ttl|title=Sulman Prize|years=2003
for Reflection}}

{{s-aft|after=Allan Mitelman}}

{{s-end}}

Notes

{{reflist}}

References

  • [http://www.ericsmithartist.com.au/ Eric Smith, Australian Artist]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Eric}}

Category:1919 births

Category:2017 deaths

Category:Archibald Prize winners

Category:Artists from Melbourne

Category:Australian Army personnel of World War II

Category:Wynne Prize winners

Category:Blake Prize for Religious Art winners

Category:Australian portrait painters

Category:Military personnel from Melbourne

Category:People from Brunswick, Victoria

Category:20th-century Australian painters

Category:Australian modern painters