Sold for: $55,250

PROVENANCE
Equinox Gallery, Vancouver
An Important Private Collection, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Robert Enright, “Entanglements: Gordon Smith and the Art of Picture-Making,” Border Crossings, September 2012, paras. 2 and 4, https://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/entanglements

Gordon Smith’s importance as an early modernist in Vancouver cannot be overstated. He was at the core of a group of artists such as Jack Shadbolt and B.C. Binning who were very aware of the latest developments in art on the world stage. Also, Lawren Harris had moved to Vancouver in 1940 and brought with him his interest in abstraction. What distinguished Smith was his progression through various styles in his work, such as Abstract Expressionism, hard-edge painting, abstracted Black series paintings with text, and then abstracted landscapes such as the Pond, Snow and Entanglements series. He was inquisitive, constantly experimenting and absorbing influences from artists that interested him, each step leading him on, keeping his work fresh and relevant.

The roots of paintings like TS #6 go back to the 1950s, when Smith was first exposed to Abstract Expressionism, to his tree paintings, such as Structure with Red Sun from 1955, with its strong grid of overlapping lines. In this work we can see the beginning of Smith’s interest in entwining and interlocking shapes. But Structure with Red Sun was more rigid, while TS #6, from Smith’s Entanglements series, is all about organic growth and lines that curve and undulate.

Smith’s landscapes from the 2000s “emerge in, and through, nature,” as Robert Enright described, as does this abstracted explosion of growth at the level of the forest floor. As the artist stated in a 2008 film, “I’ve always loved tangles, that crossing over of things.” Like a miner working a rich vein of gold, Smith created his Entanglements paintings over a period of years, and TS #6 is an outstanding acrylic from this body of work. Branches are the focus here, and their overlapping patterns of lines fascinate the eye. Pale in colouration, they are restless trails of paint that criss-cross in many directions. Smith’s brushwork is masterful, both controlled and free. Twigs and branches are layered horizontally, with the central thicker branches acting like an armature, keeping the viewer’s eye at the surface. More delicate branches create a lacy pattern over moss, lichen, rich brown humus and lush grasses, containing the action at the forest floor. Smith’s colour palette is dominated by saturated tones of green, ivory and chocolate brown, but as is typical of the works in this series, brighter colours emerge from the depths – notes of red, yellow and caramel. Those splashes assert Smith’s painterly freedom amidst his use of the natural colours of the forest.

TS #6 shows that a small section of the forest floor could be a rich and fascinating subject for Smith’s consideration. It overlays the generative sources of earth and plant life with the seemingly random pilings of branches, which create an all-over pattern of tremendous vitality. Nature is unstoppable in its growth, and so was Smith in his devotion to his painting.

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

All prices are in Canadian Dollars