Smith’s Donor Painting (2005) with its oak panel and gesso grounds reinforced other aspects of £1512 that Smith was unwilling to address within the context of Scottish art in the 1970s, particularly his dismissal of the viability of painting and subsequent abandonment at an early point in his career. Smith ‘turned the tables’ on his own reasoning, refreshing meaning in £1512 by extolling the relevance of painting, stepping back in time, to leap forward. Rendered in the trappings of Renaissance-style painting a floating square of linen falls perfectly through time. The tabernacle frame [...] of the painting re-created a museological framework, which was enhanced by the installation’s hallowed hush produced by a single candle-light now appearing alongside the space of £1512, and explicitly illuminated the donor relationship between artist and ‘moneymen’, the relationship variously empowering and disempowering the artist.
SCOTTISH ART SINCE 1960 –The Feel of the Situation: National Identity and the Avant-Garde in Scottish Art (1968-78) Note 165 – Prof Craig Richardson - 2011 - Ashgate Publishing Limited, England
SCOTTISH ART SINCE 1960 –The Feel of the Situation: National Identity and the Avant-Garde in Scottish Art (1968-78) Note 165 – Prof Craig Richardson - 2011 - Ashgate Publishing Limited, England