Charles Darwin University Art Collection curator Anita Angel’s new book on the art of John Firth-Smith was launched at the Art Gallery of NSW last week in Sydney.
The book was officially launched by former NSW Liberal MP Rosemary Foot AO, a noted patron of the arts, at a function hosted by the Art Gallery of NSW Society.
John Firth-Smith has been one of Australia’s leading abstract painters for more than four decades. He is represented in all major national and regional Australian art collections, and in corporate and private collections in Australia and abroad.
Angel first met the artist when she was undertaking doctoral research in early 2000, on a history of the Northern Territory Artists’ Camps, run by the former Northern Territory Museum of Arts and Sciences during the 1980s. Firth-Smith was one of 44 artists who participated in the camps.
She was initially commissioned to write a catalogue on Firth-Smith’s New York-inspired work, but as the writing project progressed, the catalogue became a book with a wider focus. It was completed in less than 12 months.
John-Firth Smith: From Here to There is published by Press 8, Sydney.
Angel has been curator of the CDU art collection since February 2004.