David Malouf on Jeffery Smart

Greetings from the University of Sydney, where David Malouf, author of Ransom: A Novel, is talking about the work of Jeffery Smart. The exhibition "Jeffrey Smart: Unspoke" is at the Unviersity of Sydney until 27 November 2011. An excellent 12 page exhibition catalog) is available for download and on paper. Mark Ledbury, Power Professor of Art History and Visual Culture, started by asking about the portrait of David Malouf, which depicts the author as a gas pipe worker.

Jeffery Smart's paintings of urban landscapes, often emphasizing transport (with buses, trains and trucks) often feature anonymous small figures. Malouf claimed that Smart had a classical training but deliberately went against it. However, his works appear to display the use of the ‘Golden Ratio’.

Smart was arts critic "Phidias" in the ABC children's radio series The Argonauts Club from 1951. The Argonauts are associated with the story of Troy, the subject of Malouf's book Ransom.