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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  The Estate of Ann Lewis AO
• Sale Date:
  07 Nov 2011 ~ 6pm
• Lot #:
  49
• Lot Description:
  Guy Edward Grey Smith AM
  (1916–1981)
  Guy Grey-Smith is one of the most important modernist artists to have emerged in Perth during the post-WWII years. A pilot during the war, he was shot
  Oil and beeswax emulsion on gauze laid over composition board
  122 x 91cm
  Signed and dated ’78 lower right
• Provenance:
  Original invoice; Christies, Australian and International Fine Art, 8 May 2001, lot 17; Christies, Australian and International Paintings, 25 November 2002, lot 54; GFL Fine Art, Perth, 31 May 2005, lot 54; Private collection, Perth; Ann Lewis collection
• Exhibited:
  Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 December 1978 - 29 January 1979, cat.14.
• Notes:
  Guy Grey-Smith is one of the most important modernist artists to have emerged in Perth during the post-WWII years. A pilot during the war, he was shot down and interred in POW camps for four years. Whilst there, he taught himself to draw and followed this up with formal studies at the Chelsea School of Arts under Ceri Richards and Henry Moore. Returning to Perth in late 1947, he set himself the challenge of translating the Western Australian landscape through the prism of the 'school of Paris' artists such as Cezanne and Matisse. By the late 1950s, his imagery had become increasingly elemental due, in part, to his allied practices of frescos and printmaking. Eventually, the work of the Russian painter Nicholas de Stael provided a key to his strategies and from this point on, Grey-Smith's work evolved into a unique distillation of the primordial forces of nature, marked by high-coloured, thick impasto applied in broad swathes using scraper knives. Elected to the Australia Council for the Arts in 1977, he renewed his acquaintance with Ann Lewis who had met some years previously. Lewis admired Guy's integrity as much as his art and offered him an exhibition at Gallery A which opened in 1978 to strong critical acclaim (a second show followed in 1980). Lewis chose Jasper Bay, lot 186, for her own collection at the show's conclusion. Guy had regained his pilot's licence in 1976, and this painting probably shows an aerial view of the Black Point/Cliffy Head area near Lake Jasper in Pemberton, Western Australia (there is no actual Jasper Bay). As a gesture of appreciation, Guy painted Lewis' portrait and entered it into the 1978 Archibald Prize, becoming his fifth and final entry into Australia's most famous portrait competition. Andrew Gaynor, Author of the monograph Guy Grey-Smith: Life Force
• Estimate:
  A$10,000 - 15,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.