Guy Grey-Smith

{{Short description|Western Australian artist (1916–1981)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}} {{Use Australian English|date=June 2015}} {{Infobox artist | name = Guy Grey-Smith | image = File:Guy Grey-Smith self portrait.jpeg | image_size = 150px | caption = Guy Grey-Smith 1947 Selfportrait drawing & watercolour | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1916|1|7|df=y}} | birth_place = Wagin, Western Australia, Australia | death_date = {{Death date and age|1981|08|11|1916|1|7|df=y}} | death_place = Western Australia, Australia | nationality = | known_for = Painting, printmaking and ceramics | training = | movement = | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = }} '''Guy Grey-Smith''' {{post-nominals|country=AUS|AM}} ({{birth date|1916|1|7|df=y}}{{spaced ndash}}{{death date and age|1981|8|11|1916|1|7|df=y}}) was an Australian painter, printmaker and ceramicist. Grey-Smith pioneered modernism in Western Australia, and has been described as "one of Australia's most significant artists of the 20th century".<ref name=bug>{{cite news |author1=Buggins, Anne |author2=Guest, Debbie |title=Gordon Stephenson, Guy Grey-Smith, Eric Edgar Cooke |work=Features |publisher=The West Australian |date=9 November 2006 |page=6}}</ref>

==Biography==

===Early life=== Guy Grey-Smith, the second son of Francis Edward Grey-Smith, station manager, and his wife Ada Janet (née King) was born in Wagin, Western Australia in 1916.<ref>Jenny Mills, 'Grey-Smith, Guy Edward (1916–1981)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/greysmith-guy-edward-12566/text22625, published first in hardcopy 2007, accessed online 20 January 2016.</ref>

===Military service=== thumb|200px|A Bristol Blenheim belonging to Guy Grey-Smith's squadron, over France in 1940. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) when he was 20 and trained as a pilot.<ref name=enc>{{cite book |title= The encyclopedia of Australian art |last=McCulloch |first=Alan |year=1994 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |isbn= 1-86373-315-9 }}</ref><ref name=adb>[https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/greysmith-guy-edward-12566 Jenny Mills, 2007, "Grey-Smith, Guy Edward (1916–1981)" Australian Dictionary of Biography (online ed.)] (access: 11 October 2012).</ref> In 1937, he transferred to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) on a Short Service Commission and moved to England. He married an Englishwoman, Helen Dorothy Stanes, at Godmanchester on 19 October 1939.

After the outbreak of World War II, he served with No. 139 Squadron RAF, and flew Bristol Blenheim bombers during the Battle of France, with the rank of Flying Officer<ref name=blenheim>''"Bristol" BLENHEIM: The Journal of the Blenheim Society'', 2011, iss. 69 (March), p16.</ref> On 12 May 1940, the squadron was stationed at Plivot and undertook a mission to attack German positions near Maastricht and Tongeren, in the Netherlands. Grey-Smith's aircraft (''N6219'') was attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and caught fire. As he parachuted out of the stricken bomber, Grey-Smith was hit by the tailplane and received severe head injuries,<ref name=adb/> but landed safely. He was captured and kept at Stalag Luft III as a prisoner of war.<ref name=bug/><ref name=enc/> During his time as POW, Grey-Smith began to explore an interest in art, with materials sent by his wife.<ref name=adb/> He contracted tuberculosis and, as a consequence, was repatriated to the UK in 1944 for treatment, which included art therapy.<ref name=eva>{{cite web |url=http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/cv/grey-smith_guy_bio.html |title=Guy Grey-Smith Biography |access-date=2008-05-15 |publisher=Eva Breuer Art Dealer |archive-url=https://archive.today/20060831200754/http://www.evabreuerartdealer.com.au/cv/grey-smith_guy_bio.html |archive-date=31 August 2006 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

===Artistic career=== In 1945, he began studying at the Chelsea School of Art.<ref name=enc/> Grey-Smith attended the school until 1947, learning from Ceri Richards, Robert Medley and Henry Moore.<ref name=enc/> He and Helen returned to Western Australia and set up a pottery studio at their home in Darlington.<ref name=bug/>

In 1952, his tuberculosis recurred, and upon recovery eight months later, he and Helen moved back to London.<ref name=eva/> He studied fresco painting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts under Louis le Brocquy until 1954.<ref name=enc/> Upon their return to Australia, Grey-Smith worked for the Education Department and Art Gallery before journeying across the Nullarbor and to the north-west of Western Australia, which inspired his work.<ref name=enc/><ref name=eva/>

In 1966, Grey-Smith became inaugural president of the Contemporary Art Society (WA Branch).<ref>{{cite book| last=Davis | first=Annette | title=Guy Grey-Smith: Guy Grey-Smith's landscapes of Western Australia | via=Research Online|publisher= Edith Cowan University|format=Exhibition catalogue | date=1996|isbn=0729802299 | url=https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks/7139 | access-date=25 March 2021}}</ref>

===Death=== He died at the age of 65 from a recurrence of tuberculosis, in August 1981.<ref name=eva/>

==Artwork and recognition== He formed the Perth Group in the late 1950s with fellow artists Robert Juniper Brian McKay, Tom Gibbons and Maurice Stubbs. The group's aim was to promote European modernism, which was not yet accepted in Australia.<ref name=bug/> Grey-Smith was influenced by Cézanne, English constructionist painters, Nicolas de Staël<ref>Gleeson, James (1972) 'True to a joint code, but only so far'. In ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' July 16, 1972, p.50 [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1301&dat=19720716&id=9AtkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=COUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3772,6548131&hl=en]</ref> and the Western Australian landscape.<ref name=bug/> He travelled throughout the state, including the Kimberley, Pilbara, Goldfields and South West regions, drawing and making notes in order to produce larger works back in his studio.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ted |last=Snell |title=European modernism gets transposed locally |newspaper=The Australian |date=22 August 1996 |page=15}}</ref>

At the time of his death, his work was increasingly achieving recognition and is held in high regard today.<ref name=enc/> In December 2007, Christie's auctioned one of his landscape paintings with an estimate of £1500 to £2500.<ref name=fish>{{cite news |first=Peter |last=Fish |title=Priced to sell - after some arm-twisting |url=http://business.smh.com.au/priced-to-sell--after-some-armtwisting-20080405-23ts.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20121230161929/http://business.smh.com.au/priced-to-sell--after-some-armtwisting-20080405-23ts.html?page=fullpage%23contentSwap2 |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 December 2012 |work=Business |publisher=The Sydney Morning Herald |date=5 April 2008 |access-date=2008-05-15 }}</ref> The painting sold for £29,300 (A$64,000).<ref name=fish/> According to art collector Max Grunberg, Grey-Smith paintings sold at a large auction during the 1990s for $18,000 to $20,000 would now sell for at least $40,000 to $45,000.<ref name=fish/>

He won the Perth Prize for best Western Australian entry in 1955 and 1963, and the Perth Prize in 1964.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Art Gallery Society of Western Australia | title=The Perth prize for contemporary art : catalogue | date=1950 | publisher=Art Gallery Society of Western Australia] | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/14786207 | access-date=20 January 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{Citation | author1=Perth Prize for Drawing | title=[Perth Prize for Drawing : Australian Gallery File] | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32485087 | access-date=20 January 2016 }}</ref> In 1959, he was awarded the Murdoch Prize,<ref>{{Citation | author1=Murdoch Prize for a genre painting | title=[Murdoch Prize for a genre painting : Australian Gallery File] | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32484917 | access-date=20 January 2016 }}</ref> and the Robin Hood Art Prize in 1962<ref>{{Citation | author1=Robin Hood Committee : Annual Art Competition | title=[Robin Hood Committee : Annual Art Competition : Australian Gallery File] | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/32485264 | access-date=20 January 2016 }}</ref>

He received the St George's Cathedral Prize in 1966 and 1967, and the Walter Murdoch Prize in 1967 and 1968.

Grey-Smith was honoured with a Special Distinguished Artist and Scholar Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 1973 and an Order of Australia in 1981.<ref name=eva/>

In 2012, a new biography of the artist by Andrew Gaynor was published.<ref>{{Citation | author1=Gaynor, Andrew | title=Guy Grey-Smith : Life Force | date=2012 | publisher=UWA Publishing | isbn=978-1-74258-394-5 }}</ref>

==Selected exhibitions== * 1957 Brummels Gallery, Melbourne.<ref>Shaw, Arnold (1957) 'Art Notes: Young Painter Comes To Maturity'. In 'The Age' July 2, 1957 p.2 [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19570702&id=Y2EQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sZUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3058,131139&hl=en]</ref> * 1961 Recent Australian Painting (group show) Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK June 1961 - July 1961

==Selected posthumous exhibitions== Solo: *2014 Guy Grey-Smith: Art As Life - Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA *2006 Guy Grey Smith - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA *2001 Guy Grey-Smith - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA *1997 Guy Grey-Smith - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA Group: *2011Vast: North-West landscapes - Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA *2010 Tom Collins, and after: a bequest and its legacy - The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA * Miscellanea - Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW *LandSpace - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA *2008 Style and Synthesis: Nine Australian moderns - The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA *2005 Space - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA *2000 GdeF Group show - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA

==References== {{Reflist|30em}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Grey-Smith, Guy}} Category:1916 births Category:1981 deaths Category:People from Wagin, Western Australia Category:20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Victoria (state) Category:20th-century Australian male artists Category:20th-century Australian printmakers Category:Darlington, Western Australia Category:Royal Australian Air Force personnel Category:Royal Air Force pilots of World War II Category:Royal Air Force officers Category:British World War II prisoners of war Category:Stalag Luft III prisoners of World War II Category:Shot-down aviators Category:Australian male painters Category:British World War II bomber pilots Category:20th-century Australian painters Category:Australian modern painters