Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

Jeffrey Smart’s Posticcia Nuova – a Villa with a View

Philip Bacon

1 and 2 November, 2017

Lecture summary:

For over fifty years, Jeffrey Smart, ’s most celebrated expatriate artist lived in , and over forty of those years were spent at Posticcia Nuova, his 18th century farmhouse in the heart of . Surrounded by the most ravishing rural landscape, he continued his life’s work of depicting the modern world in all its clinical beauty, and taught us to properly see the world we live in.

Slide list:

1. Jeffrey Smart, Self portrait at Papini’s, 1984-85, oil on canvas, private collection 2. , Finding and Recognition of the True Cross, 1452 –1466, fresco, Basilica di San Francesco, Arrezo 3. Luca Signorelli, The Damned are taken to Hell and received by Demons, 1499-1504 fresco, Orvieto Cathedral 4. Piero della Francesca, The Resurrection, 1460s, fresco, Borgo San Sepolcro 7. Jeffrey Smart, Stadium entrance, 2001, oil on canvas, courtesy Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane 8. Jeffrey Smart, The Ramp, Bicycle Race, 1994, oil on canvas, private collection, Melbourne 12. Jeffrey Smart, Approach to a City III, 1968-1969, oil on canvas, private collection 13. Jeffrey Smart, Reflected arrows, 1974, oil on canvas, private collection 14. Jeffrey Smart, End of the Autostrada, 1968, oil on canvas, private collection 16. Jeffrey Smart, Spring landscape, 1970, oil on canvas, private collection 17. Jeffrey Smart, Holiday, 1971, oil on canvas, private collection 18. Jeffrey Smart, The Tuscan Farmhouse, 1980, oil on canvas, private collection 27. Jeffrey Smart, Autobahn in the Black Forest II, 1979-80, oil on canvas, private collection 28. Jeffrey Smart, The red arrow II, 1973, oil on canvas, private collection 29. Jeffrey Smart, The picnic III, 1980, oil on canvas, private collection 30. Jeffrey Smart, On the periphery, 2003-04, oil on canvas, Collection of the National Gallery of Australia 31. Jeffrey Smart, Portrait of Germaine Greer, 1984, oil on canvas, private collection 33. Jeffrey Smart, City landscapes, 1970, oil on canvas, Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales 43. Jeffrey Smart, Reflected arrows, 1974, oil on canvas, private collection 44. Jeffrey Smart, The dome, 1977, oil on canvas, private collection 45. Jeffrey Smart, The guiding spheres II (Homage to Cezanne), 1979-80, oil on canvas, private collection 49. Jeffrey Smart, First study for Portrait of David Malouf, 1980, synthetic polymer paint on paper, private collection 50. Jeffrey Smart, Portrait of David Malouf, 1980, oil on canvas, private collection 51. Jeffrey Smart, The bus depot (Study for 'Portrait of David Malouf'), 1979, oil on canvas, private collection Proudly sponsored by

54. Barry Humphries, Road to Posticcia Nuova, Near Arezzo, 1981, oil on canvas, private collection, Tuscany 57. Jeffrey Smart, Charcoal sketch of , 1991, charcoal on paper, private collection 58. Jeffrey Smart, Oil sketch of Clive James, 1991, oil on canvas, private collection 59. Jeffrey Smart, Portrait of Clive James, 1991, oil on canvas, Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales

Reference:

Jeffrey Smart, ‘Not Quite Straight: A Memoir’. William Heinemann Press, 1996.

Barry Pearce, ‘Jeffrey Smart’. The Beagle Press, 2005.

Barry Pearce, ‘Master of Stillness: Jeffrey Smart’. Wakefield Press, 2012.

Clive James, ‘Out from under the balcony. Times Literary Supplement. 1 Sept, 2006.

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/