Deutscher and Hackett

One of the many constants in the art of Jeffrey Smart is travel- trucks and cyclists on roads, garages, overpasses, trains and railways, airports, seaports and hovercraft terminals, as in the one at Boulogne. Not surprisingly, Smart enjoys travel, around Europe, the Greek isles, and visits to Australia for his exhibitions. The paradox is that his subjects are like still life, nothing moves, as if frozen in a time outside itself. What could be more full of movement than the acrobatic figure in this painting? People do not freeze in the air, nor do hoops remain motionless- except in a Smart painting. Smart has claimed in the past that he introduces figures into his compositions for scale; but you must keep them under control or they will tempt the eye away from all else. Not here. They are the focus, which, combined with the absence of autobahns and buildings, makes this such an interesting painting, readily acknowledged by the art critics when first exhibited in Sydney. An important change took place between the first study, with its sublimated buildings and sea walls, and the final version. Now, cars, a caravan and truck, although present, are dismissed to the near horizon, the figures in the distance more references of measurement. The landscape has that slightly eerie, expectant quality that we know so well, a stage for performers, the perfect setting for something to happen. The three are young and the focus of attention. Growing as they come closer, and coloured to seduce the eye, the realism of the unreal pose playing a game of illusion and abstraction. As always in the best of Smart, the composition is a consummate balance.

DAVID THOMAS