Brydon Smith was an art curator and museum administrator who had an impact on International and Canadian art history.
10 Facts About Brydon Smith
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Brydon Smith then assisted scholar Robert Welsh with organizing a major survey of Piet Mondrian, in collaboration with the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague.
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In late 1966 or early 1967, Smith was promoted to curator of modern art, the first such appointment which established a separate department in what had been called "the curator" in the Art Gallery of Toronto.
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Brydon Smith followed Jean Boggs to the National Gallery of Canada in 1967.
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Brydon Smith was instrumental in choosing Canadian artists for the national pavilion at the Venice biennale: Ulysse Comtois and Guido Molinari in 1968, Michael Snow in 1970, and Gershon Iskowitz and Walter Redinger in 1972.
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The first exhibition Brydon Smith curated at the Gallery in Ottawa James Rosenquist was the artist's first museum survey.
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Brydon Smith followed it with a travelling show of Dan Flavin titled fluorescent light, etc.
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In 1979, Brydon Smith was made assistant director and Director of Research and Collections at the National Gallery, where through the mid-1980s he played a key role in the planning and realization of the new National Gallery of Canada building in 1988, for which he received a Public Service Award of Merit.
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Brydon Smith followed this purchase with the acquisition of Mark Rothko's No 16, again controversial largely due to its price.
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The Brydon Smith fonds is in the NGC Library and Archives.