Partner Ermes De Zan
Queer Places:
La Posticcia Nuova, Strada Provinciale 18 52020 Pieve A Presciano AR
Jeffrey Smart (July
26, 1921 – June 20, 2013) was an Australian expat artist. He died in Arrezzo, Italy,
in 2013at age 91, with his partner of more than 30 years,
Ermes De Zan, at his side. He
trained at the South Australian School of Art and acknowledged his
homosexuality in the early 1940s.
Smart was born and educated in Adelaide where he worked as an Art teacher. After departing for Europe in 1948 he studied in Paris at La Grande Chaumière, and later at the Académie Montmartre under Fernand Léger. He returned to Australia 1951, living in Sydney, and began exhibiting frequently in 1957. In 1963, he moved to Italy. After a successful exhibition in London, he bought a rural property called "Posticcia Nuova" near Arezzo in Tuscany. He resided there with his partner until his death.
Jeff Smart, as he was generally known for the first thirty years of his life, was born in Adelaide in 1921.[4] He started drawing at an early age. "My parents would give me large sheets of paper, often the backs of posters or calendars ... anything".[5] He was educated at Pulteney Grammar School and Unley High School, and originally wanted to become an architect. However, after studying at the Adelaide Teachers College and the South Australian School of Art and Crafts in 1937–1941,[6] he taught art in schools for the South Australian Education Department in 1942–1947.[7] In the early 1940s he accompanied local maritime artist, John Giles, in painting industrial landscapes at Port Adelaide.[8] He joined the Royal South Australian Society of Arts around 1941[9] and was elected vice-president in 1950.[10] It was during this period that he acknowledged his homosexuality.[11]
Smart travelled to Europe in 1948, studying in Paris at La Grand Chaumière and later the Académie Montmartre under Fernand Léger. "As my technique grew, I found I could paint those things I liked looking at, those slum streets behind the city apartments". In 1950 he lived on the island of Ischia in the bay of Naples, where he painted with Donald Friend, Michael Shannon and Jacqueline Hick.
In 1951, he moved to Sydney and spent the next 2 years there as an art critic for the Daily Telegraph (1952–54), an arts compere called Phidias for the ABC children's radio programme The Argonauts, and a drawing teacher at the National Art School (1956–62). From 1956 to 1962, he also presented on ABC-TV's Children's Hour.[3] Smart was also employed by The King's School, Parramatta in 1954–56 as an Art teacher, following Jean Bellette (known as Mrs Haefliger) and John Passmore. He exhibited throughout this period at the Macquarie Galleries.
Smart departed Australia for London on the Castel Felice out of Sydney just after Christmas 1963, driving to Greece with fellow painter Justin O'Brien.[12] In 1965 he returned to Italy, and lived there for the rest of his life, regarding himself as an "Australian living abroad" and carrying an Australian passport.[13] His last work, "Labyrinth", was completed in 2011, at which point he announced his retirement.
Smart died of renal failure in Arezzo on 20 June 2013, aged 91.[13][14][15]
Smart’s autobiography, Not Quite Straight, was published in 1996. Following his death in Tuscany from kidney failure, the University of South Australia announced that upon completion of the newest building at its City West campus in 2014, it will be named the "Jeffrey Smart Building."
Below are several of Smart’s paintings, which sell for premium prices. In 2011, his “Autobahn in the Black Forest II (1980) sold for US $908,000.00 at auction in Melbourne (AUS $1,020,000).
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