Trio

1963
Smith, Richard
Richard Smith studied at the Royal College of Art in London between 1954 and 1957. After being awarded a Harkness Fellowship, he lived in New York between 1959 and 1961, where he began producing paintings influenced by American commercial culture and the work of Abstract Expressionists. Like other paintings from that period, 'Trio' reflects Smith's interest in bold, magnified forms and bright, fresh colours, often used in advertising to evoke and stimulate viewers' imagination. As the artist describes it in his own words: 'the actual image in my paintings tends to dissolve into this high colour thing.' Richard Smith's work gradually became more minimal, often painted in one colour with a second colour used only as an accent. He began to question the two-dimensional properties of paintings and the conventional materials used by artists, such as canvas and stretcher. By removing the canvas from the stretcher, he created objects that took painting close to the realm of sculpture. Monika McConnell
  • Artwork Details: 152.4 x 172.7cm
  • Edition:
  • Material description: oil on canvas
  • Credit line: © the artist
  • Theme: Abstract
  • Medium: Painting
  • Accession number: AC 694

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The Arts Council Collection is the UK's most widely seen collection of modern and contemporary art.

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