Born in England in 1931, studied at the Royal College of Art
1954-1957, and lived and worked in New York
between 1959-1961 and 1963-1965. After staying in New York for
two years, Smith produced paintings in which he used abstraction
to depict familiar objects such as company logos and the coloured
printing in magazines.
In 1962 he began to use the techniques of advertising and packaging
of consumer products. His work of 1962-3 concentrated on the
packaging of commodities and the role of surface design in selling
the product. The aggressive methods employed by advertisers
to seduce the consumer led him in the same year from shaped
canvases to three-dimensional wall hanging constructions, again
based on packaging techniques.
The
largest and most blatant work, called Gift Wrap in which two
monumentalized cigarette packets are so massively sculptural
in form as to cast deep shadows on the painted background,
represents Smith's most extreme engagement with 'Pop' motifs
are shown in extreme close up, as in both cinema and billboard
advertising. Ordinary products are represented as monumental
and lusciously desirable.
The
focus of Smith's work on advertising and mass culture became
less prominent after 1963.
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