Jeffrey Smart NGA exhibition gains fresh meaning in Covid times

Works by legendary Australian artist Jeffrey Smart paint a poignant picture of pandemic life, even though they are decades-old.

Jeffrey Smart, Self portrait, Procida, 1956-57, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, purchased 2016, (c) The Estate of Jeffrey Smart, courtesy of Philip Bacon Galleries. Supplied for Elizabeth Fortescue

A solitary figure on a tiny apartment balcony; a man on the edge of a deserted Cahill Expressway; a lone trumpeter playing to rusty oil drums – these could be images of pandemic life.

They were, however, painted decades before lockdown became our new normal, and are among over 100 pieces by legendary Australian artist Jeffrey Smart, currently being hitched to the walls of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA).

Opening on December 11, the Jeffrey Smart exhibition marks the centenary of the late Adelaide-raised artist’s birth, and was delayed by more than two months due to the ACT lockdown.

Paintings by Jeffrey Smart have prompted much speculation as to their meaning, perhaps none more than 'Cahill Expressway', pictured. Dated 1962, oil on plywood, 81.9 x 111.3 cm, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.

Adamant to his last days that his lonely figures and curious juxtapositions were purely compositional, Smart has prompted volumes of speculation with his hyper-realistic urban and industrial scenes.

NGA head curator of Australian art, Dr Deborah Hart, expects visitors to find poignant new narratives in them as we emerge from months of lockdown and isolation.

“People will feel parallels and resonance with what we’ve been experiencing in recent times,” Dr Hart said.

“His work creates a stage set, it’s open for viewers to create their own responses – it strikes a chord with all ages.”

Co-curators (L to R) Rebecca Edwards and Deborah Hart prepare for the December 11 launch of the Jeffrey Smart exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.

From highways to lampposts and brutalist apartment towers, Smart’s visually arresting work pays homage to the geometry of urban environments.

Scenes that may otherwise be perceived as ugly or unremarkable, remained his lifelong obsession even after moving to Italy in the 60s, where he lived in a bucolic Tuscan farmhouse with long-term partner Ermes De Zan.

“That sense of isolation is in a lot of Jeffrey’s work,” Dr Hart said.

“It’s really art of our times as we’ve all been walking around the streets in our neighbourhoods, seeing things we’ve never noticed before.”

Loaned from galleries and private collections across Australia, pieces in the NGA exhibition span from Smart’s early works in the 1940s, to his last painting, Labyrinth, completed in 2011, two years before he died.

The showcase includes studies and watercolour drafts, revealing the process behind some of Smart’s most iconic paintings, and providing an insight into the workings of a brilliant artistic mind.

Jeffrey Smart in his studio in Arezzo, Italy, 2011. Picture: Rob Palmer

“We have well-known works like Cahill Expressway, and Truck and Trailer Approaching a City, but there are others people may not be familiar with, some real surprises that open up new ways to see Jeffrey’s work,” Dr Hart said.

The NGA will reopen this Friday, after being closed for 10 weeks, and according to Dr Hart, missing out on cultural experiences in recent times has prompted a renewed appreciation of them.

“Lockdown has made us so aware of those things we took for granted across the cultural sphere with visual arts, theatre and music,” she said.

“All the things happening online were great, but it’s not the same as being in front of a work of art, and sharing the experience with other people.”

For tickets, visit the NGA

Originally published as Jeffrey Smart NGA exhibition gains fresh meaning in Covid times