Richard Smith Surface I, 2009

Richard Smith CBE (1931-2016) was one of the most influential artists of his generation. After studying in the 1950s at the Royal College of Art alongside artists such as Peter Blake and Robyn Denny, Smith stood apart from the burgeoning Pop Art movement of the 1960s by melding the slick and vibrant imagery found in the commercial landscape with an expansive abstract painting language very much his own. He gained critical acclaim for extending the boundaries of painting into three dimensions, creating sculptural shaped canvases with monumental presence, which literally protruded into the viewer's space. In his two dimensional surfaces Smith uses bold colour to delineate forms, while also employing sculptural strategies such as cuts and folds, creating an organic depth, rhythm, and structure within a flat plane.