Jeffery Smart

Smart’s painting The four closed shops refers to painters of the Italian art scene–Emilio Vedova, an Abstract Expressionist; Renato Guttuso, an expressive Social Realist; and Valerio Adami who was influenced by Pop art. Here Smart lists them as the absent owners of three neighbouring shops, perhaps ironically referencing the art movements they represented. Visually, however, the most relevant reference is to the characteristics of geometric abstraction, evident in the vibrantly coloured abstract shapes painted on the closed shop doors.