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A Life of Color and Devotion

Eric John Smith began his life in Brunswick, Melbourne, where he first learned the fundamentals of commercial art and painting at the Brunswick Technical School. His early years were shaped by the heavy responsibilities of adulthood and service; he joined the Australian Army in 1940, spending much of the Second World War away from the easel. When the conflict ended, he returned to Melbourne to continue his studies under a rehabilitation training scheme at RMIT. There was a quiet, hardworking quality to his early existence, a period marked by the grit of a man who once worked as a window cleaner for David Jones.

In 1952, Eric and his wife, Joy, moved to Sydney, a change that would eventually place him at the center of the Australian art scene. For a time, his studio was simply the bedroom they shared, a modest space where he began to find his voice through religious themes. He found deep inspiration in his conversion to Catholicism during the 1950s, and this spiritual shift manifested in works like The Scourged Christ. It was a period of intense focus, where the weight of faith met the physical reality of thick, textured paint.

Recognition and Controversy

The middle years of his career brought significant accolades that placed him among the most decorated painters of his generation. He achieved a rare feat in the Australian art world, winning the Archibald Prize three times, specifically for his portraits of Neville Gruzman, Rudy Komon, and Peter Sculthorpe. His success was not limited to portraiture; he also earned the Wynne Prize twice and the Sulman Prize three times. These honors reflected a man who could move between the human face and larger, more abstract forms with ease.

However, his path was not without friction. In 1981, his portrait of Rudy Komon sparked a heated debate regarding the rules of competition, as some argued the work relied too heavily on photographic interpretation. The controversy eventually settled when Komon himself defended the artist, noting their long history of sitting for one another. This period of his life showed a man who remained deeply connected to his subjects, even when the technicalities of his method were questioned by others.

A Lasting Legacy

As the decades passed, Eric's work expanded into large abstract pieces and continued explorations of religious art, earning him the Blake Prize for Religious Art six times. He was a man of habit and discipline, maintaining an 8am to 6pm studio routine well into his later years. Even as he moved away from the public eye following the death of his longtime representative, Rudy Komon, he continued to produce work with a rigorous, self-critical eye, often destroying pieces that failed to meet his own internal standards.

His contributions are held in several major institutions, ensuring his presence remains in the permanent record of Australian art:

• Art Gallery of New South Wales
• National Gallery of Victoria
• Queensland Art Gallery
• National Gallery
• Tate Gallery (London exhibition)

By the time he passed away in Sydney at the age of 97, he had left behind a body of work that spanned from the traditional to the experimental. He was an artist who sought to express truths through a heavy application of paint and a bold use of color, leaving a mark on the landscape of Australian modern painting.