Richard Smith

Kasmin Ltd, London
Waddington & Tooth Galleries, London
Sale, Sotheby's London, 15th July 2008, lot 171, where acquired by the present owner

London, Whitechapel Gallery, Richard Smith Paintings 1958-1966, May 1966, cat. no.42, illustrated.

Original canvas. There are very minor signs of light surface dirt with handling marks visible, most noticeable in the top corners. This excepting the work appears in very good overall condition. Ultraviolet light reveals some isolated spots of fluorescence and probable retouching to the white pigment in the top centre and bottom left quadrants, with further, minor flecks appearing elsewhere. These have all been very sensitively executed. Unframed. Please telephone the department on +44 (0) 207 293 6424 if you have any questions regarding the present work.
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Four Corners 4 was executed in 1965, the year before an exhibition held at the Whitechapel Gallery showcasing Smith’s paintings from 1958-66. The work is an example of Smiths’ early style, before he embarked upon his cut-outs and shaped canvases, for which he is largely remembered for now. At this time Smith was partiuclarly interested in the work of the American abstract painters, having spent time in New York on the Harkness Fellowship from 1959-1961.

In an interview with Bryan Robertson in the catalogue of the whitechapel Gallery exhibition, he likened his notion of colour to a hedge row: ‘you can see through the colour but it’s still solid, a wall, though you can penetrate it and see the different parts of the hedge on various levels.’ His works from this period are made up of vibrant colours shapes, constructed from layer upon layer of thinly applied paint, getting tonally lighter towards the surface and creating luminosity in the canvases. Smith believed that the accumulation of visible brushstrokes should determine the direction and flow of a painting and stated that ‘although I was using quite precise shapes in the flat paintings, these still could be adhered to following an all-over rhythm contained by the precise boundary.’