22 Facts About Jeffrey Smart

Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart was an expatriate Australian painter known for his precisionist depictions of urban landscapes that are "full of private jokes and playful allusions".

Jeffrey Smart returned to Australia 1951, living in Sydney, and began exhibiting frequently in 1957.

Jeffrey Smart resided there with his partner until his death.

Jeff Jeffrey Smart, as he was generally known for the first thirty years of his life, was born in Adelaide in 1921.

Jeffrey Smart joined the Royal South Australian Society of Arts around 1941 and was elected vice-president in 1950.

Jeffrey Smart travelled to Europe in 1948, studying in Paris at La Grand Chaumiere and later the Academie Montmartre under Fernand Leger.

Jeffrey Smart exhibited throughout this period at the Macquarie Galleries.

Jeffrey Smart departed Australia for London on the Castel Felice out of Sydney just after Christmas 1963, driving to Greece with fellow painter Justin O'Brien.

Jeffrey Smart died of renal failure in Arezzo on 20 June 2013, aged 91.

Jeffrey Smart is one of Australia's best known artists with his almost iconic and unique imagery, heavily influenced by various artists and art forms.

Under the tutorship lessons of modernist artist, Dorrit Black, Jeffrey Smart acquainted himself with the 'Golden Mean.

James Gleeson believes that Jeffrey Smart's paintings are "too real to be real"; and believes that his realist portrayals of 20th century life are nothing more than superb geometrical compositions and bold colour, of man in his naturalistic, man-made environment.

Jeffrey Smart believed that people should view art with their eyes and not their head.

Jeffrey Smart shared with Piero, in addition to the geometrics and composition, the spatial grandeur and 'ineloquence' found present in each of their works.

Jeffrey Smart was influenced by Renaissance Dutch painter Rogier van der Weyden.

Jeffrey Smart regarded being able to draw the human being as the single most important attainment of any artist.

Jeffrey Smart regarded abstract painters as people who never learnt to draw.

Jeffrey Smart's process of painting was a long and arduous one, resulting in barely a dozen finished canvases a year.

In 1951, Jeffrey Smart was awarded the Commonwealth Jubilee Art Prize.

Jeffrey Smart was conferred the honorary title of Doctor of the University by the University of Sydney in 1999, and by the University of South Australia in 2011.

Jeffrey Smart was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2001 for his service to the visual arts, particularly through his distinctive portrayal of the urban landscape, and through the encouragement offered to young artists.

Jeffrey Smart was a patron and active supporter of the Tait Memorial Trust in London, a charity established by Isla Baring OAM, the daughter of Sir Frank Tait of JC Williamson's, to support young Australian performing artists in the UK.