SMART , Jeffrey |Waiting for the train

ENLARGE 1/1

Adelaide, South Australia, Australia born 1921

Movements: United States of America and Europe 1948-50, Europe 1962-65, Italy from 1965

Waiting for the train 1969/70
Posticcia Nuova [property name], Pieve a Presciano, Tuscany, Arezzo province, Italy
Painting, synthetic polymer paint on canvas
Primary Insc: Signed bottom right "JEFFREY SMART"
59.0 h x 89.0 w cm
Framed 802 h x 1102 w x 57 d mm
Gift of Alcoa World Alumina Australia 2005
Accession No: NGA 2005.96

MORE DETAIL

Smart has returned to the subject of waiting on a number of occasions. In Waiting for the train a comparison with Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot is unmistakable and the timelessness of the moment of waiting becomes the subject of this work. In Playground at Piraeus the sharp realism of Smarts work is played out against the uncertainty of the narrative. A man walks purposefully into the middle distance where a woman waits on a park bench. She turns to watch him but are they destined to meet? The transience of the moment is in contrast to the stability of the composition, which is such an important aspect of Smarts works.

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