Gordon Smith, Sea Drift II, 1989, acrylic on canvas. SFU Art Collection. Gift of Joan and Leon Tuey, 2023. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Gordon Smith, Sea Drift III, 1989, acrylic on canvas. SFU Art Collection. Gift of Joan and Leon Tuey, 2023. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Gordon Smith, Jim Hart at Skidegate, n.d., photolithograph. SFU Art Collection. Gift of Joan and Leon Tuey, 2023. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography
Throughout his extensive 75-year career, Gordon Smith’s artworks displayed a rich diversity of styles, with a consistent focus on the delicate balance between abstraction and representation. Smith consistently drew inspiration from natural landscapes, particularly from his travels to Haida Gwaii, the Carmanah Valley of Vancouver Island, and the coastal regions of Vancouver’s north shore. Smith’s late-1980s paintings demonstrate a dark palette, free-flowing expressionist brushwork, and tight subject cropping. Sea Drift II (1989) and Sea Drift III (1989) are part of a series of paintings following his travels to Haida Gwaii, and indicates Smith’s sustained interest in the islands’ dynamic intertidal zones where sea and land intersect. This period was a time of significant experimentation for the artist. As curator Ian Thom writes, “Smith was able to take a series of visual cues from the landscape, his viewing of the world, and build an aesthetic which referred to but surpassed the immediate observation of the eye” (See Ian M. Thom and Andrew Hunter, Gordon Smith: The Act of Painting, Vancouver Art Gallery, 1997, 50).
Jim Hart at Skidegate (n.d.) is a photolithograph based on a drawing created by Smith during a visit to Haida Gwaii. The drawing records a detail of a house post carved by the esteemed Haida artist Chief 7iDANsuu James “Jim” Hart (b.1952). While the production details and date are unknown, this work is representative of Smith’s interest in producing small print editions derived from his earlier drawings to distribute to family and friends.
Gordon Appelbe Smith (b. 18 June 1919 – d. 18 January 2020) was a prominent Canadian artist active in the Vancouver art scene for over five decades. Born in England, he moved to Canada in 1933, settling into Winnipeg and attending the Winnipeg School of Art. Continuing his studies at the Vancouver School of Art, he trained under B.C. Binning and Jack Shadbolt, and later studied at the California School of Fine Art in the early 1950s. Smith’s first solo exhibition was mounted at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1947. Smith gained international exposure in 1960 when he represented Canada at the São Paulo Biennial. While Smith attained recognition for his abstract expressionist paintings early in his practice, he started exploring op art, flatness, and hard-edged lines in the 1960s. Primarily recognized as a painter and printmaker, he also created several sculptures and murals for public locations such as the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, the MacMillan Bloedel Building, the Vancouver Law Library, and Simon Fraser University Burnaby campus. Smith passed away in his West Vancouver home in 2020.
A prolific artist, Smith’s work is extensively collected both privately and by major galleries across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the Vancouver Art Gallery, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. He was a long-time artist with representation at Bau-xi Gallery in Vancouver and Toronto, and later Equinox Gallery in Vancouver. In 1996, Smith was appointed a member of the Order of Canada, and in 2007, he received the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts, followed by the Governor General’s Award in the Visual and Media Arts in 2009.