Jeffrey Smart

Synopsis
In the story of modern Australian art, Jeffrey Smart stands alone. The vocabulary of his visual language - modern city life, a kind of deadpan realism tinged with a hint of surrealism - is unmistakably of our time, but his sense of composition is devoted to the most rigorous and eloquent standards of the High Renaissance and the works of such artists as Piero della Francesca. This catalogue is a retrospective of Smart's work over more than four decades, focusing on his most fundamental concerns and interests. Images have been selected for the volume in terms of their composition, in the belief that in this aspect of his work lies the secret to an understanding and appreciation of his importance as an artist.