John Firth-Smith (b. 1943) is a Sydney abstract painter. In the early 1960s he won a number of 'young artist' prizes for his paintings of yachts on Sydney Harbour, but by 1968 his work was becoming increasingly abstract, featuring large fields of opaque colour. Through the sixties, seventies and eighties he taught at various schools and institutions while exhibiting regularly and winning awards every two or three years. In 1974 he was the subject of a twenty-minute documentary on the ABC's Target programme, and his works were soon acquired by a number of corporate collections. In 1981 he completed the enormous commissioned project of 32 panels for the reception area of the ANZ Bank in Collins Place, Melbourne. Firth-Smith has travelled very widely and has lived and worked overseas for several periods. Still a successful artist, Firth-Smith is represented in most major Australian public galleries. This photograph was taken at his studio in Sydney during the years he was exhibiting at Gallery A.
Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2003
Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program
© Lewis Morley Archive LLC
Lewis Morley (49 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Magda Keaney speaks with Lewis Morley about his photographic career and the major retrospective of his work on display at the NPG.
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