Skip to main content
Skip to footer Skip to Acknowledgement of Country
National Gallery of Australia
What's On Art & Artists Visit
Login
  1. Home
  2. About Us
  3. Media
  4. Media Releases
  5. 2021
  6. Jeffrey Smart opens at the National Gallery

Jeffrey Smart opens at the National Gallery

MEDIA RELEASE

10 Dec 2021


The National Gallery will celebrate the work and life of renowned Australian artist Jeffrey Smart with a major new exhibition, which opens to the public tomorrow.

With a career spanning seven decades, Adelaide-born Smart provided a fresh take on 20th century modernity, capturing the dynamism and beauty of urban life in his depictions of sweeping roadways, high-rise apartments, construction sites and other elements of the industrial age.

Marking the centenary of Smart’s birth in 1921, Jeffrey Smart brings together more than 100 works of art from public lenders and private collectors as well as the National Gallery’s collection, tracing his artistic legacy from his early years in South Australia to his last painting, Labyrinth, completed in 2011, two years before his death.

Exhibition curators Dr Deborah Hart, Henry Dalrymple Head Curator, Australian Art, and Dr Rebecca Edwards, Sid and Fiona Myer Curator, Australian Art, have explored Smart’s career to share different dimensions for audiences familiar with his practice, as well as inspiring visitors discovering his art for the first time.

Jeffrey Smart showcases Smart’s artistic vision around themes including theatre of the real and the uncanny; surveillance; abstraction and figuration; portraiture; and art about art.

Initially due to open in October but delayed due to the pandemic, the exhibition – only on show in Kamberri/Canberra – will have an extended season from 11 December 2021 to 15 May 2022. Audiences can take advantage of the longer run with $39 season tickets available to National Gallery members. Full ticket details are available here.

National Gallery Director Nick Mitzevich said Smart was a unique voice in Australian art and his work was part of the DNA of the National Gallery, which will mark 40 years since its opening in 2022.

“Jeffrey Smart made an impact on generations of artists, art students and art lovers and we are pleased to remember his remarkable life in this centenary year,” Mr Mitzevich said. “He has been an important part of the National Gallery for decades – even before its inception – when the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board purchased Wallaroo in 1959, for what was to become the national collection.”

Dr Hart and Dr Edwards said Smart’s distinctive vision enabled him and his audience to imagine afresh the everyday world around us.

“Smart, from his early years, developed a feeling for mystical possibilities beyond the purely visible that translated into a dreamlike, uncanny presence in his art,” they said. “In his best works there is a precise delineation of imagery, a compression of emotion, a wry wit, a focus on composition and a theatricality.”

While art was always a passion, it was not until his 40s that he was painting full-time. Smart began his working life as a teacher and his career included stints as an art critic at The Daily Telegraph, presenter on the ABC children’s radio program The Argonauts, and a teacher at the National Art School. Smart explored his journey to becoming an artist and the complexity of being gay in post-war Australia in his 1996 memoir Not Quite Straight. After a life-long fascination with Europe, Smart settled in Italy with his long-term partner Ermes De Zan in the 1970s but continued to return regularly to Australia.

KEY DATES

Exhibition Season | 11 December 2021 – 15 May 2022 | Tickets here

Open daily 10am-5pm (except Christmas Day)

A Tuscan Lunch | 11 December 2021 – 30 January 2022. | 11.30am & 1.30 pm | Tickets here

Celebrate the art of Jeffrey Smart with a Tuscan-style lunch in the National Gallery Dining Room.

Jeffrey Smart’s Abstract Theatre | 11 December, 11.30am | Free, online via Facebook

Join Jeffrey Smart curators, Dr Deborah Hart and Dr Rebecca Edwards, in conversation as they introduce the exhibition and discuss visual storytelling in the painting of Jeffrey Smart.

Media kit, Top 5 works and images here.

Jeffrey Smart catalogue here.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

Sandra O’Malley | Communications Manager
m. +61 418 897 794 e. sandra.omalley@nga.gov.au


Related


Story

The Sitters

Painting of an older man wearing a white shirt green vest and navy blue jacket with a red and white spotted neck tie, standing in front of a textured wall
Media

Jeffrey Smart
Media Kit

Exhibition

Jeffrey Smart

The back of a truck, wrapped in black plastic in the centre of a service station with yellow fixtures

11 Dec 2021 – 15 May 2022

Australian Art /  Video

Jeffrey Smart's 'Corrugated Gioconda'

Video still of a close up shot of painting.

Published 16 December 2010

Go back to start of main content
Go to top of page

Yuuma, Gurruburri

The National Gallery acknowledges the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the Kamberri/Canberra region, and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country.

  • National Gallery On Demand
  • Art & Artists
  • What's On
  • Visit
  • Membership
  • Donate
  • Jobs
  • About Us

Connect

+61 2 6240 6411
information@nga.gov.au
Get art in your inbox

Open every day

(except Christmas day)
10am – 5pm

Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country
Parkes Place East, Parkes ACT 2600

View Street Map
View Gallery Map


Contact us

National Gallery of Australia

Follow the National gallery of Australia on:

  • Instagram
  • YouTube
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
Website Privacy Website Disclaimer Website Copyright
Opening Acknowledgment of Country

The National Gallery acknowledges the First Peoples of this land and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country

Learn More
birds-eye view photograph of bushland
    • View All
    • Today
    • Exhibitions
    • Access Programs
    • All Programs
    • On Demand
    • About the Collection
    • Sculpture Garden
    • Kenneth E. Tyler Collection
    • Provenance
    • Conservation
    • Copyright
    • Search the Collection
    • Plan Your Visit
    • Getting Here
    • Parking & Transport
    • Art Store
    • Dining
    • Visiting with Kids
    • Research Library & Archives
    • Admission tickets
    • Browse Stories
    • Browse Videos
    • Artonview Magazine
    • Podcasts
    • Audio Tours
    • Virtual Tours
    • Learning Programs
    • For People with Access Needs
    • For Teachers & Students
    • For Young People
    • For Kids & Families
    • For Adults
    • For Your Community
    • Art Cases
    • Educator Programs
    • Get Involved
    • Membership
    • Voluntary Guides
    • Partnerships
    • Support
    • Donate
  • First Nations
  • Access
  • Art Store
  • Media
  • Venue Hire
  • About Us