Sold for: $109,250

PROVENANCE
Equinox Gallery, Vancouver
An Important Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Ian M. Thom and Andrew Hunter, Gordon Smith: The Act of Painting, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1997, page 101
Andy Sylvester, Gordon Smith: Don’t Look Back, 2014,essay by Ian Wallace, pages 100 and 119

In 2012, Gordon Smith produced a group of works based on Cypress Mountain landscapes. This mountain was directly above Smith’s home and studio in West Vancouver, its wild forest only a short drive away. This work is a superb acrylic from the Entanglements series.

Branches and greenery emerge from a snow-covered forest floor, in a work that is more representational than abstract. Smith was always creating different balances between abstraction and landscape in his painting. This work evokes the presence of a particular section of woods, yet it could be anywhere on the mountain, as we are not given landmarks. In Cypress #3, Smith is primarily concerned with paint and the definition of space. The artist plays with perspective - the patch of snow in the top left reads vertically, as if rising up a hill, and it acts to tilt the whole plane forward. A tracery of branches overlays the forest floor; some of these are delicate, some are thicker, with the larger ones edged with a layer of snow. These branches block entry to the scene – this is not a landscape you feel you can step into. It is one to be observed for the patterns of lines on a colour field. Smith’s fluid definition of the forest floor is established through soft brushwork, with snow broken by dark splotches and patches of moss and forest debris. The dominant palette of white, green, brown and black is illuminated by daubs of ochre, orange, green and red that add sparks of energy.

As Ian Wallace wrote, Smith was “committed to the historical destiny of painting as a vision of modernity, actively declaring his individual existence through the free marking that is the idiom of abstract painting.” Smith’s commitment to modernism dates from 1951, when he studied at the California School of Fine Arts with Elmer Bischoff. He was exposed to American artists such as Clyfford Still, Richard Diebenkorn and Arshile Gorky, and this marked a turning point for him. In 1957, he went to Harvard to study and met Walter Gropius, the German-American architect who was the founder in 1919 of the modernist Bauhaus School, whose influence was important to Smith. In Vancouver, the modernist scene was crossing artistic boundaries and included architects, artists and writers. Smith stated he had “many mentors with varying interests: Arthur [Erickson], Jack [Shadbolt]…..George Woodcock, Jack Parnell,…Geoff Massey and many others in a community of very engaged people.” He also felt that “the Vancouver [post-war] art community was ahead of any other in Canada. There were more active artists in Vancouver than anywhere else in the country experimenting with new ideas, with abstraction.”

Smith famously stated that he was “one hundred painters deep.” He continually absorbed ideas, using them to form his unique, ever-evolving style. Smith worked in his studio every day, and his will to paint was a declaration of his very existence. His passion and dedication to his art was, and continues to be, an inspiration to artists.

Consignor proceeds will benefit Ballet BC, Food Stash Foundation and the YMCA of Greater Vancouver.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars