Michael Smither CNZM | |
|---|---|
 Michael Smither in his Otama Beach studio, 2009 | |
| Born | Michael Duncan Smither 29 October 1939 |
| Nationality | New Zealand |
| Education | Elam School of Fine Arts |
| Known for | Painting, print making and musical composition |
| Style | Modernist |
| Awards | Frances Hodgkins Fellowship, 1970 |
Michael Duncan Smither CNZM (born 29 October 1939) [1] is a New Zealand painter and composer. [2]
Smither was born in New Plymouth and was educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School and Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland. While studying he worked part-time in a car spray-paint shop, an occupation which introduced Smither to the use of lacquer-based paints.
In 1959, Smither returned to New Plymouth, working part-time in arts-related jobs. His first solo exhibition was in 1961. In 1963 he married Elizabeth Harrington, who is better known as New Zealand Poet Elizabeth Smither. The two have three children, Sarah, Thomas and Joseph.
Smither separated from Elizabeth and eventually divorced. For a few years he was married to Rachel McAlpine, a writer. Smither now lives at Otama beach on the Coromandel Peninsula.
Smither was also influenced by Rita Angus and Lois White as he was studying. He turned to them for inspiration. Despite experiencing a minor stroke in 2014 and suffering from shingles, Michael Smither continues to paint and has no plans to stop anytime soon. "I would rather die with my brush in my hand or boots on of whatever you like to call it. There's no attraction to me in the idea of retiring and going on long holidays overseas and stuff like that. To me, I've always had to have a quotient of art involved in whatever it is I am doing. It's either music or painting or sculpture or environmental efforts." [3] He used to trade his artwork for boxes of groceries to keep his family feed. [4]
Smither works in a variety of media - notably oils, acrylics, and screenprint - and on a variety of subjects. Domestic life is a major theme of many of his works, these scenes depicted with a rigorous yet idiosyncratic realism. A similar style is brought to his landscapes, many of which depict the Taranaki landscape around which he grew up. At least two of his paintings, The Family in the Van and Rocks with Mountain [5] have attained the status of iconic paintings in New Zealand. Rocks with Mountain is held by the Auckland Art Gallery. [6] Smither notes that he sold the Family in the Van for $300 after deducting commission in the early 1970s. It then sold in 2012 for $200,000. [7]
In the 1960s Michael Smither worked with his father Bill Smither producing many different screenprints. Screenprinting was not considered an "art" at this stage. After the death of his father in 1985, Michael Smither did not produce any screenprints for several years. Mount Taranaki is a frequent image in his screenprints. [8] Michael Smither continues to produce modestly priced screen prints alongside his paintings which continue to fetch high prices in art auctions.
Smither's paintings are characterized as being of a representational, hard-edged style. His approach has changed over the years, with his more recent works having more attention spent on the details of objects, people and places. [9]
He is the patron of community art gallery "Real Tart" in New Plymouth. [10]
His first solo exhibition was in 1961. He had a comprehensive survey exhibition developed by the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery in New Plymouth and toured through New Zealand in 1986 [11] and a major exhibition in 2005 curated by the Auckland Art Gallery entitled The Wonder Years that also toured the country. [12] His paintings appear in the collections of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi O Tamaki, Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington and the Waikato Museum amongst others [9]
1965
1966
1967
1968
1969
1970
1971
1977
1978
1980
1981
1984
1992
2005
Michael Smither set the record for the most expensive painting sold that was painted by a living New Zealand artist when his 1967 painting entitled Sea Wall and Kingfisher sold for $342,000 in October 2019. [28] [29] This was eclipsed in December 2022, when his painting entitled Two Rock Pools sold under the hammer for $516,000. [30]
In 2019, Smither's painting of Saint Francis and the Wolf sold at auction for $240,000. The painting took almost 12 years to complete and incorporates Smither's Catholic faith, telling the story of St Francis of Assisi and a wolf that terrorized the Umbrian town of Gubbio in 1220. Saint Francis and the Wolf are sitting below ferns with the wolf staring out at the viewer while Saint Francis has his eyes closed. [31]
A 1993 painting Large Still Life with Green Plastic Plate also sold in 2019 for $180,000. This painting of a benchtop covering with cooking implements drying with shadows cast on the bench was described as expressing "the way these rhythms [between object and space] exist equally in the details of daily life as they do in the great natural formations of land and mountains". [32]
Michael Smither's 2001 painting of The Manifesto Café and Wine Bar, a well known venue in the 1990s on Auckland's Queen Street sold in auction in 2020 for $131,600. With its references to Edward Hoppers Nighthawks, Michael Smither describes it as a proposal of marriage between the seated couple "witnessed in a sidelong glance". [33] [34]
Michael Smither painted an aquatic themed mural on the staircase and entranceway to a house in Takutai Street, Parnell, over a 10-year period in the 1970s when he would come around to visit friends who lived in the house. The house (complete with the art work) sold in an auction for $4.18 million in May 2021. The new owner was "absolutely ecstatic" about the artwork. [38] [39]
Michael Smither had many books of his art, with just one of them being Michael Smither - Painter.
Smither was the recipient of the 1970 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship from the University of Otago. In the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the arts. [40]
Sir Mountford Tosswill "Toss" Woollaston was a New Zealand artist. He is regarded as one of the most important New Zealand painters of the 20th century.
Andrew Drummond is a New Zealand painter and sculptor. He attended University of Waterloo in Canada, graduating in 1976. He was a Frances Hodgkins Fellow in 1980.
Shane William Cotton is a New Zealand painter whose work explores biculturalism, colonialism, cultural identity, Māori spirituality, and life and death.
Richard John Killeen is a significant New Zealand painter, sculptor and digital artist.
Michael Te Rakato Parekōwhai is a New Zealand sculptor and a professor at the University of Auckland's Elam School of Fine Arts. He is of Ngāriki Rotoawe and Ngāti Whakarongo descent and his mother is Pākehā.
Mark Adams is one of New Zealand's most distinguished photographers.
Julian Dashper, was regarded as one of New Zealand's most well known contemporary artists.
Rudolf Gopas was a New Zealand artist and art teacher. He was born in Šilutė, Germany. Gopas' works are held in the collections of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, Christchurch Art Gallery and the Hocken Library.
Fiona Dorothy Pardington is a New Zealand artist, her principal medium being photography.
Vivian Isabella Lynn was a New Zealand artist.
Judith Ann Darragh is a New Zealand artist who uses found objects to create sculptural assemblages. She has also worked in paint and film. Darragh is represented in a number of public collections in New Zealand. In 2004, The Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa held a major retrospective of her work titled Judy Darragh: So... You Made It?
Ann Shelton is a New Zealand photographer and academic.
Giovanni Intra was an artist, writer, and art dealer who moved from his native New Zealand to the United States in 1996.
Luise Fong is a Malaysian-born New Zealand artist.
Donald Sinclair Driver (1930–2011) was a New Zealand artist born in Hastings. Driver was self-taught and worked in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, collage and assemblage. His work was often recognized for its use of everyday or vernacular materials.
Denise Kum is a New Zealand artist. Her works are held in the collection of Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, and the University of Auckland art collection.
Claire Regnault is a New Zealand historian, curator and non-fiction writer. In 2022, her book Dressed: Fashionable Dress in Aotearoa New Zealand 1840 to 1910 won an Ockham New Zealand Book Award.
Ronald Norris O'Reilly was a librarian who promoted and exhibited contemporary New Zealand art. He served as Christchurch city librarian from 1951 to 1968, and director of the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery from 1975 to 1979.
Michael Harland Illingworth was a New Zealand painter and farmer.
Raymond Wallace Thorburn was a New Zealand artist, art educator and museum director.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
