Artist Eric Smith was born in Melbourne and worked as a graphic designer before serving in the Second World War. Afterwards, he studied painting at RMIT and began to exhibit regularly. In 1952 he moved to Sydney, where he emerged as a key exponent of abstraction. He was later a member of the group called the Sydney Nine, whose 1961 exhibitions asserted the rigour of abstract art in the context of debates about its integrity. Smith won the Archibald Prize for a third time with this portrait of his friend Peter Sculthorpe (1929–2014), the Tasmanian-born, internationally renowned composer. Inspired by Sculthorpe's music, Smith conceived of an expressive portrait to evoke the composer's creative process and started work on the painting less than three weeks before entries closed. A day before the deadline, he made drastic changes to the work, covering everything other than Sculthorpe's figure in thick orange paint. Squares of white were 'slashed' across the canvas, creating 'sheets of music exploding into the space'. Sculthorpe had the portrait on loan for a long time before the National Portrait Gallery purchased it from Smith in 2004. 'Most portraits by other artists tended to be rather dark and expressionistic,' Sculthorpe said in 2008, 'whereas Eric's painting brings in the sun … It captures my heart, my soul, my spirit, my music, everything.'
Purchased with funds from the Basil Bressler Bequest 2004
© Estate of Eric Smith
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