Untitled

Ian Smith

The Work

Two older figures pause on a walk, bending forward to lean their weight onto a railing, heads lowered — a moment of quiet rest rather than motion. It's a small, unremarkable scene, and that's very much the point: Smith's work has always drawn on the everyday, even the mundane, finding meaning in ordinary moments rather than grand ones. Rendered in fine, calligraphic ink line beneath an arch of overhanging tree branches, with washes of soft grey and blue colour applied selectively to the figures' lower garments. A latticed fence and post structure anchors the left side of the composition. Signed and dated lower right.

Year: 1996
Medium: Ink and watercolour on paper
Image size: 200 mm x 290 mm
Framed size: 370 mm x 475 mm
Catalogue: 0064

Provenance

I bought this piece as part of a small collection of six works on paper by Ian Smith, purchased in one hit from a private seller. This particular piece had originally been sold through Heiser Gallery in Brisbane, which continues to represent Smith's work today.

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Framing

Framed in a thin Tasmanian Blackwood moulding from my native timber range, with UltraVue glazing and 8-ply cotton rag matting — a simple, restrained setting that lets the drawing's linework carry the piece.

About Ian Smith

Ian Smith was born in Cairns, Queensland, in 1950. He began studying architecture at the University of Queensland in 1968 before leaving after a year, moving to Melbourne to complete a Diploma of Art & Design at Prahran College (1970–72). He returned to Brisbane in 1973 to teach painting and drawing at the Queensland College of Art, a role he held until 1979, when he left to paint full-time — a commitment he has sustained ever since. Smith is one of Queensland's most significant living figurative painters. His work has been curated into major exhibitions both in Australia and internationally, including at the Queensland Art Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art in Saitama, Japan, and Campo & Campo Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium, where he lived for seven years through the late 1980s and early '90s. In 1988, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Brisbane staged a major survey of his work. He is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of NSW, the National Gallery of Australia, and the National Gallery of Victoria, and continues to exhibit through Heiser Gallery and Woolloongabba Art Gallery in Brisbane.