By the 1960s, Gordon Smith (1919-2020) had developed a series of paintings built around a concentrated gathering of organic forms suspended against deep, atmospheric fields of colour. Smith's encounter with Arshile Gorky's work during a 1951 visit to San Francisco has often been cited as an important touchstone for these paintings. In SA 13 Landscape, painterly brushstrokes of earthy greens and deeps blues clash against a black and ochre yellow centre. As quick shards of reds and whites jet out, almost departing from the picture plane, directly towards the viewer. Smith's forms, albeit non-representational, belong to a broader language of biomorphic abstraction, in which the landscape is neither abandoned nor translated into symbols. Like Gorky, Smith discovered that forms drawn from the natural world could remain open, provisional, and deeply felt. Smith's new body of work quickly attracted critical attention. In November 1966, Time magazine reproduced Red Wizard, a closely related canvas from the same series, bringing the paintings to a broad international audience. With its assured composition and commanding use of colour, SA 13 Landscape is a rare example that exemplifies the formal confidence and ambition that established Smith as one of the leading figures in post-war Canadian painting.

Works

SA 13 Landscape SA 13 Landscape SA 13 Landscape SA 13 Landscape SA 13 Landscape
SA 13 Landscape
c.1965

Fairs

Art Toronto
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
October 29 - November 1, 2026
Booth 100
Art Toronto

Public Collections

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver
Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Montreal
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg
Doris McCarthy Gallery, Toronto
Dalhousie Art Gallery, Halifax
Simon Fraser University Art Collection, Burnaby
McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg