Guy Grey-Smith

Guy Grey-Smith was an Australian painter, printmaker and ceramicist. Grey-Smith pioneered modernism in Western Australia, and has been described as "one of Australia's most significant artists of the 20th century".

Biography

Early life Guy Grey-Smith, the second son of Francis Edward Grey-Smith, station manager, and his wife Ada Janet (née King) was born in Wagin, Western Australia in 1916.

Military service A Bristol Blenheim belonging to Guy Grey-Smith's squadron, over France in 1940. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) when he was 20 and trained as a pilot. In 1937, he transferred to the British Royal Air Force (RAF) on a Short Service Commission and moved to England. He married an Englishwoman, Helen Dorothy Stanes, at Godmanchester on 19 October 1939.

After the outbreak of World War II, he served with No. 139 Squadron RAF, and flew Bristol Blenheim bombers during the Battle of France, with the rank of Flying Officer On 12 May 1940, the squadron was stationed at Plivot and undertook a mission to attack German positions near Maastricht and Tongeren, in the Netherlands. Grey-Smith's aircraft (N6219) was attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter and caught fire. As he parachuted out of the stricken bomber, Grey-Smith was hit by the tailplane and received severe head injuries,

Artistic career In 1945, he began studying at the Chelsea School of Art.

Death He died at the age of 65 from a recurrence of tuberculosis, in August 1981. and the Western Australian landscape.

At the time of his death, his work was increasingly achieving recognition and is held in high regard today. The painting sold for £29,300 (A$64,000). In 1959, he was awarded the Murdoch Prize, and the Robin Hood Art Prize in 1962

He received the St George's Cathedral Prize in 1966 and 1967, and the Walter Murdoch Prize in 1967 and 1968.

Grey-Smith was honoured with a Special Distinguished Artist and Scholar Grant from the Australia Council for the Arts in 1973 and an Order of Australia in 1981.

Selected exhibitions 1957 Brummels Gallery, Melbourne. 1961 Recent Australian Painting (group show) Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK June 1961 - July 1961

Selected posthumous exhibitions Solo: 2014 Guy Grey-Smith: Art As Life - Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA 2006 Guy Grey Smith - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA 2001 Guy Grey-Smith - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA 1997 Guy Grey-Smith - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA Group: 2011Vast: North-West landscapes - Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA 2010 Tom Collins, and after: a bequest and its legacy - The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA Miscellanea - Tim Olsen Gallery, Sydney, NSW LandSpace - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA 2008 Style and Synthesis: Nine Australian moderns - The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA 2005 Space - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA 2000 GdeF Group show - Goddard de Fiddes Gallery, West Perth, WA