Australian artist Jeffrey Smart has died of renal failure at the age of 91.
Smart was one of Australia’s best-known artists. His work is often called ‘Surreal’ but Smart always maintained that it was the world that was surreal, not his image of it.
He is one of the rare Australian artists whose paintings sell for $1m+. That puts him in the same category as Brett Whiteley, Fred Williams, John Brack, Fred McCubbin and Sidney Nolan.
Born in Adelaide in 1921 and studied in Paris in 1948. One of his first jobs was as the Art Critic for the Daily Telegraph is Sydney from 1952-1954. He also hosted the children’s program ‘The Argonauts’ on ABC from 1951 to 1963.
His first exhibition was in 1957 and in 1963 he moved to Italy, where he made Arezzo his home until his death.
From 1939-1982 Jeffrey Smart produced 799 works and was still painting until 2011 when he turned 90.
