Guy Grey-Smith Sold at Auction Prices

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        • GUY GREY-SMITH, CASCADES, 1976
          Nov. 22, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, CASCADES, 1976

          Est: $40,000 - $60,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) CASCADES, 1976 oil and beeswax emulsion on gauze on composition board 120.0 x 90.0 cm signed and dated lower right: G. Grey Smith / 76 bears inscription verso: Guy GREY–SMITH “Cascades” PROVENANCE Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide Private collection, Melbourne, acquired from the above in 1977 Private collection, Melbourne, a gift from the above in 2018 EXHIBITED Ten Western Australian Artists, The Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 18 August – 26 September 1976, cat. 2 (illus. in exhibition catalogue) Guy Grey-Smith, Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide, opened 11 September 1977, cat. 12 (as 'Cascade') ESSAY Guy Grey-Smith had an emotional attachment to the landscape of Western Australia, with an intensity that was directly transferred to his paintings. As with many who have walked those lands, this connection was also spiritual, even transformative, and for a man whose soul had been so damaged by his experiences during World War Two and then Cambodia in the late 1960s, the dense karri forests of the state’s south-west, where Cascades, 1976, was painted, were particularly healing. He and his wife, the artist Helen Grey-Smith, moved there in 1974 when the encroach of suburbia and a constant stream of visitors made their previous home in the Darling Ranges outside Perth less of the haven that it had been; and the purchase of a small wood-cutters cottage in the timber town of Pemberton ‘suited the two self-described ‘country personalities’ perfectly.’1   Cascades dates from the same year as Grey-Smith’s extensive and acclaimed retrospective was held at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in November 1976, which then toured to Queensland the following year. Although it was not in that show, Cascades was exhibited at the AGWA some months previously in the exhibition Ten Western Australian Artists which is credited as being a moment when the Gallery had ‘finally come out in favour of local art,’2 the retrospective being their next clear statement of intent. By chronologically surveying Grey-Smith’s works from 1945 to 1976, the retrospective allowed viewers to follow his evolving technique from his early days as a patient receiving art therapy in a sanitorium treating him for tuberculosis contracted after four years as a prisoner-of-war followed by study at the Chelsea School of Arts on recovery. By the late 1950s, his painting, ceramics and fresco skills all began to coalesce into masterworks such as Horseshoe Range, 1958 – 61 (Art Gallery of Western Australia) which contained clear indications as to why his subsequent discovery of the work of Nicolas de Staël became so inspirational. By using scrapers and trowels, combined with paint bulked up by a home-made wax medium, Grey-Smith’s paintings were now tectonic expressions of the very essence – the ‘life force’ – of the subjects in front of him. He was no longer a plein air painter and would instead travel extensively through Western Australia, sketching as he went, before returning to the studio to create painterly reimaginings. In the late 1960s, as a result of journeys to Sri Lanka and Bali, he reintroduced the brush which allowed for fluid curves and arcs to counterbalance the planes of slab-paint.   Grey-Smith was appointed Professor of Fine Art at Phnom Penh University in 1969, which tragically coincided with the outbreak of war. He suffered a total nervous collapse as a result which incapacitated him for an extended period, but by 1974 and the move to Pemberton, optimism had returned to his work. The cascades featured in the painting are on the Warren River, not far from the Pemberton cottage, and Grey-Smith perfectly captures the ‘evocative … visual experience of moving between light and dark, so common in a thickly wooded place, and firmly makes the viewer part of the scene.’3 The counterplay of deep blues and striking emerald-green, orange and bruised purple, demonstrates Grey-Smith’s mastery of colour and clearly invokes his deeply emotional reaction to the scene.   1. Gaynor, A., Guy Grey-Smith: life force, University of Western Australia, Perth, 2012, p. 92 2. Cruthers, J., ‘Visual Arts: the gallery scene and a retrospective’, Westerly, Perth, no. 4, December 1976, p. 122 3. Harpley, M., Guy Grey-Smith: art as life, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2014, p. 14   ANDREW GAYNOR

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - KARRI FOREST - WOODCUT
          Nov. 21, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - KARRI FOREST - WOODCUT

          Est: $400 - $600

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) KARRI FOREST Signed and dated 75 lower right Woodcut 30 x 20cm Estimate $400/600 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - LANDSCAPE - INK AND WATERCOLOUR
          Nov. 21, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - LANDSCAPE - INK AND WATERCOLOUR

          Est: $3,000 - $5,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) LANDSCAPE Signed and dated 63 lower right Ink and watercolour 34 x 42cm Estimate $3,000/5,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - OPEN ROAD THROUGH THE HILLS - INK AND WASH
          Nov. 21, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - OPEN ROAD THROUGH THE HILLS - INK AND WASH

          Est: $1,800 - $2,500

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) OPEN ROAD THROUGH THE HILLS Signed lower right Ink and wash 50 x 67cm Estimate $1,800/2,500 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - THE HURDLERS - OIL AND BEESWAX EMULSION ON HARDBOARD
          Nov. 21, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - THE HURDLERS - OIL AND BEESWAX EMULSION ON HARDBOARD

          Est: $80,000 - $120,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) THE HURDLERS Signed lower right Oil and beeswax emulsion on hardboard 90.5 x 122cm Estimate $80,000/120,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - DARLING RANGE - OIL ON BOARD
          Nov. 21, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - DARLING RANGE - OIL ON BOARD

          Est: $30,000 - $40,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) DARLING RANGE Signed and dated 57 lower right Oil on board 67 x 90cm Estimate $30,000/40,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH 1916-1981
          Oct. 31, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH 1916-1981

          Est: $350 - $550

          "Banksia" 1975 Etching Edition 4/15, signed and dated lower right under image. 23.5 x 25cm Provenance: Another impression (7/15) is held in the collection National Gallery of Australia. Accession number: 93.638.

          McKenzies Auctioneers
        • GUY GREY-SMITH 1916-1981
          Oct. 31, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH 1916-1981

          Est: $400 - $600

          "Glazed and Decorated Jug" Terracotta, signed on base. 18.5cm Height x 14cm Width

          McKenzies Auctioneers
        • GUY GREY-SMITH, NUDE STUDY, 1947
          Oct. 10, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, NUDE STUDY, 1947

          Est: $4,000 - $6,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) NUDE STUDY, 1947 oil on canvas 51.0 x 41.0 cm 57.0 x 47.0 cm (frame) signed and dated lower left: G Grey Smith / 47 PROVENANCE The Skinner Collection, Perth Thence by descent Private collection, Perth This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH, VILLAGE SCENE, CORNWALL, 1945
          Oct. 10, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, VILLAGE SCENE, CORNWALL, 1945

          Est: $4,000 - $6,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) VILLAGE SCENE, CORNWALL, 1945 oil on canvas on compressed card 34.5 x 45.0 cm 43.5 x 53.5 cm (frame) signed and dated lower right: G. Grey-Smith / 45 PROVENANCE Mrs Joy Halleen, Perth  The Skinner Collection, Perth Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Guy Grey-Smith Retrospective 1976 – 1977, The Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 11 November - 12 December 1976, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 13 January - 15 February 1977, cat. 1 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Klepac, L.,  Guy Grey-Smith Retrospective, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 1976, cat. 1, p. 26 (illus.) Gaynor, A., Guy Grey–Smith: Life Force, University of Western Australia Publishing, Perth, 2012, p. 264 Mason, M., ’88 Works Cover 30 Years of Creativity’, The West Australian, Perth, 11 November 1976, p. 10 This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH, STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS, 1946
          Oct. 10, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS, 1946

          Est: $5,000 - $7,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) STILL LIFE WITH FLOWERS, 1946 VERSO: STREET SCENE oil on canvas 41.0 x 31.5 cm 53.0 x 43.0 cm (frame) signed and dated lower right: G Grey Smith / 46 PROVENANCE The Skinner Collection, Perth Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED Guy Grey-Smith Retrospective 1976 – 1977, The Western Australian Art Gallery, Perth, 11 November - 12 December 1976, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 13 January - 15 February 1977, cat. 2 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Klepac, L.,  Guy Grey-Smith Retrospective, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 1976, cat. 2, p. 26 (illus.) Gaynor, A., Guy Grey–Smith: Life Force, University of Western Australia Publishing, Perth, 2012, p. 264 This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH, PLACE DU TERTRE, PARIS, 1947
          Oct. 10, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, PLACE DU TERTRE, PARIS, 1947

          Est: $8,000 - $12,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) PLACE DU TERTRE, PARIS, 1947 oil on canvas 41.0 x 51.0 cm 55.0 x 65.0 cm (frame) signed and dated lower right: G. Grey Smith / 47 bears inscription verso: PLACE du TERTRE - PARIS ... Guy Grey Smith ... Collection J. Skinner PROVENANCE The Skinner Collection, Perth Thence by descent Private collection, Perth EXHIBITED probably: Catalogue of Paintings in oils, watercolours and pastels by Guy Grey-Smith, Newspaper House Gallery, Perth, 2 – 14 May 1949 This work is located in our Melbourne Gallery

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - UNTITLED - Glazed and decorated clay vase
          Sep. 14, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - UNTITLED - Glazed and decorated clay vase

          Est: $350 - $550

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) UNTITLED Signed on base Glazed and decorated clay vase 14cm (height) Estimate $350/550 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - UNTITLED - Glazed and decorated footed plate
          Sep. 14, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - UNTITLED - Glazed and decorated footed plate

          Est: $250 - $350

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) UNTITLED Signed on base Glazed and decorated footed plate 24.5 x 5.5cm Estimate $250/350 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH 1916-1981
          Sep. 05, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH 1916-1981

          Est: $600 - $900

          "Temple Flower, Bali" Ink and mixed media on paper on board, signed and dated lower right, 1961. 38 x 24cm

          McKenzies Auctioneers
        • GUY GREY-SMITH, SEASCAPE, 1972
          Aug. 16, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, SEASCAPE, 1972

          Est: $30,000 - $40,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) SEASCAPE, 1972 oil and beeswax emulsion on muslin on composition board 99.0 x 122.0 cm signed and dated lower right: G. Grey-Smith / 72 inscribed verso: 3 GUY GREY-SMITH ‘SEASCAPE’ PROVENANCE Old Fire Station Gallery, Perth Private collection, Western Australia, acquired in the mid 1970s EXHIBITED Guy Grey-Smith, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 12-24 July 1972, cat. 2 G. Grey-Smith, Old Fire Station Gallery, Perth, 21 October – 7 November 1973, cat. 3 Five Festival Artists of the Adelaide Festival of Arts, Greenhill Galleries, Adelaide, 9 March – April 1974 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Gaynor, A.,  Guy Grey–Smith: Life Force, University of Western Australia Publishing, Perth, 2012, pp. 262, 263 ESSAY By the early 1970s, Guy Grey-Smith was one of Western Australia’s most travelled artists, having journeyed through much of Europe – including Belgium, Poland and Germany as a POW – and had become in many ways a pioneer of the interaction between Australian and Asian artists through focussed visits in the 1960s to Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), Bali and Cambodia. Already renowned for his arresting, high-colour images utilising paint thickened by a home-made beeswax emulsion and applied with scrapers, the Asian encounters led Grey-Smith to seek ways to go beyond his known style and explore other possibilities. Balinese art in particular had a great impact on the artist and upon his return to Australia, he re-introduced the brush to his paintings, as well as curlicues and arcs inspired by the ornate Hindu temple carvings for which the island is famed. Above the sea, 1968 (Curtin University, Perth) was his first major breakthrough, a shimmering view of the ocean from the air. Thus primed, Grey-Smith and his artist-wife Helen, set off to take up the post of Professor of Fine Art at Phnom Penh University in the second half of 1969.   During the first six months of their stay, Guy taught western painting techniques (whilst a Soviet instructor taught Social Realist painting in the next room) and Helen taught textiles. In their free time, they explored many ancient sites including the Bayon (Prasat Bayoăn) and Angkor Wat attending numerous dances and celebrations in the process. A powerful suite of paintings from this period emerged, following on from direction signalled by Above the sea, but now with greater chromatic intensity and fluency in the brush marks. These include: Neak Pean Angkor 1969; Angkor Wat, 1970; and Cambodian monkey dance, 1970, all now in significant private collections. However, in March 1970, disaster struck. A CIA-backed coup erupted and hostilities began against the North Vietnamese. The Grey-Smiths watched in horror as their students left to take up arms – ‘like lambs to the slaughter’ 1  – and all of Guy’s World War Two trauma returned, leading to a major nervous breakdown. It took a harrowing number of weeks before they could be repatriated and Grey-Smith returned a broken man. Understandably, art was to be his major salvation and he spent the next eighteen months experimenting with acrylic paint with mixed results; but by 1972, he was once again in control and the resultant works became stronger, more optimistic and vital, with Seascape, 1972, being a perfect example.   The exact location for Seascape is unknown, but Grey-Smith spent recuperative time during 1971 at the family’s self-built beach house at Quinns Rocks, north of Perth, and travelled up further through the Murchison and Ashburton districts. There is a brooding sensuality in Seascape, with the rich indigo and ultramarine countered by the lighter tones of the shore-break. The smooth lines of the rounded hills are picked out in yellow and orange, and the tension of the design is accentuated by the contrast of the major areas applied with paint scraper set against the curved delineations done with the brush. Although shown in an exhibition during the Adelaide Festival of Arts in 1974, it appears that Seascape then returned to Perth where it was subsequently purchased from Rie Heyman’s Old Fire Station Gallery in Subiaco.   1. Interview with Guy Grey-Smith, Western Australian Stories on the Arts, ABC program number PWN5179. Date of transmission: 1970.   ANDREW GAYNOR

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH, SUNLIT PLAIN, 1965
          Aug. 16, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH, SUNLIT PLAIN, 1965

          Est: $25,000 - $35,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916 - 1981) SUNLIT PLAIN, 1965 oil and beeswax emulsion on gauze on composition board 61.5 x 91.0 cm signed and dated lower right: G. Grey Smith / 65 inscribed verso: 8 / GUY GREY-SMITH in original artist's frame PROVENANCE Private collection, Melbourne, a gift from the artist in 1966 EXHIBITED Guy Grey-Smith, Adult Education Board Studio, Perth, 7 - 18 December 1964, cat. 8 Guy Grey-Smith: Paintings, Drawings and Prints, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, 10 - 19 August 1966, cat. 8 Guy Grey-Smith: Paintings, Argus Gallery, Melbourne, 17 - 28 October 1966, cat. 8 Guy Grey-Smith: A Survey, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Victoria, 30 April - 2 July 2006, cat. 24 (label attached verso) LITERATURE Hutchings, P., ‘Guy and Helen Grey-Smith’,  The Critic, Perth, vol. 6, no. 11, 28 January 1966, pp. 91 – 92 Gaynor, A.,  Guy Grey–Smith: Life Force, University of Western Australia Publishing, Perth, 2012, pp. 73, 222 (illus.), 257, 258 ESSAY Guy Grey-Smith’s luminous Sunlit plain, 1965, has been a treasured piece within a private collection since 1966 when the artist gifted it to his colleague, a highly respected Australian art academic in Perth. Since relocated to Melbourne, the painting has presided for many years above the wondrous clutter of this academic’s desk as a tangible and deeply personal connection to the period when Grey-Smith was truly a national artist of importance – his richly textured, vibrantly coloured paintings bringing the natural wonders of Western Australia to the east coast. Although the exact location of the plain is unknown, in the years 1964 to 1965, Grey-Smith travelled with his family to such diverse places as the Murchison, Roebourne and the De Grey River in the state’s north; Nullagine to the west; and Bunker Bay plus the Stirling Ranges to the south, and it is most likely that the composition was inspired by one of these trips.   Originally trained in post-war England under artists such as Henry Moore and Ceri Richards, Grey-Smith returned to Australia in late 1947, determined to apply all he had learnt into reinterpreting the Australian landscape. By the late fifties, as a result of his allied projects as a potter, printmaker and fresco artist, his style began to simplify with a greater emphasis on the texture of the paint to impart information. His exposure to the paintings of Nicolas de Staël in the early sixties provided the ultimate answer and from then on, his paintings became increasingly powerful and evocative. Thickening the paint with a homemade wax medium, Grey-Smith utilised the trowels he had formerly used for frescoes to apply his pigment in thick slabs, almost tectonic in their forcefulness. At the puckered edges of these – ‘not a delicate fusing of two elements but a collision’1 – Grey-Smith often retained vestiges of underpaint which allowed for chromatic ruptures to contrast new forms. In Sunlit plain, for example, the splash of blue at the middle left and the sage greens on the horizon line allude to the tenacious flora that survives in such parched areas – oases of trees and flowers that have sustained Aboriginal custodians for millennia.   When first exhibited, an extended review described the painting as being ‘perhaps the most interesting picture’ in the show, ‘in uncharacteristic shades of strawberry ice-cream and grey, which sums up the formal pre-conceptions of this artist, and the vibrant feeling which his surfaces so often have… This picture forces two judgements on us at once: it had to come out like that; and it couldn’t come out like that, ever again. The exquisite punctuations of space here suggest a musical pattern, with movements and moments of stillness and of recapitulation. The eye plays the tune to itself.’2 Of further interest is the frame, hand-crafted by the artist, which consists ‘of a single square-edged outer frame 2cm square, and a lower inner slip approximately 5cm wide sawn out of masonite which then had hessian glued to its top surface (the inner edge remained untreated).’3 Given the history of ownership of this painting and its gentle home in the academic’s study, Sunlit plain (and its frame) remains not surprisingly in wonderful condition, with its colours as vibrant today as when first applied by the artist.   1. Harpley, M., Guy Grey-Smith: art as life, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 2014, p. 12 2. Hutchings, P., ‘Guy and Helen Grey-Smith’, The Critic, Perth, vol. 6, no. 11, 28 January 1966, pp. 91–2 3. Gaynor, A., Guy Grey-Smith: life force, University of Western Australia Publishing, Perth, 2012, p. 251   ANDREW GAYNOR

          Deutscher and Hackett
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - EVERLASTINGS - WOODCUT
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - EVERLASTINGS - WOODCUT

          Est: $700 - $900

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) EVERLASTINGS Signed and editioned in margin Woodcut 46 x 30cm Estimate $700/900 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - DEVON COASTAL SCENE - WATERCOLOUR
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - DEVON COASTAL SCENE - WATERCOLOUR

          Est: $1,200 - $1,800

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) DEVON COASTAL SCENE Watercolour 33 x 45cm Estimate $1,200/1,800 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - UNTITLED - GLAZED AND DECORATED TERRACOTTA PUNCH BOWL AND LADLE
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - UNTITLED - GLAZED AND DECORATED TERRACOTTA PUNCH BOWL AND LADLE

          Est: $1,600 - $2,200

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) UNTITLED Signed on base Glazed and decorated terracotta punch bowl and ladle 18 x 25cm Estimate $1,600/2,200 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - THE HILLSIDE - INK AND WATERCOLOUR
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - THE HILLSIDE - INK AND WATERCOLOUR

          Est: $4,000 - $6,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) THE HILLSIDE Signed and dated 48 lower right Ink and watercolour 33 x 43cm Estimate $4,000/6,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - RIVER LANDSCAPE - MIXED MEDIA
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - RIVER LANDSCAPE - MIXED MEDIA

          Est: $3,000 - $5,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) RIVER LANDSCAPE Signed lower right Mixed media 28 x 42cm Estimate $3,000/5,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - NORTHERN CABBAGE - OIL ON CARD
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - NORTHERN CABBAGE - OIL ON CARD

          Est: $8,000 - $12,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) NORTHERN CABBAGE Signed and dated 72 lower right Oil on card 47 x 61cm Estimate $8,000/12,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
        • GUY GREY-SMITH - NULLAGINE COUNTRY - MIXED MEDIA
          Aug. 13, 2023

          GUY GREY-SMITH - NULLAGINE COUNTRY - MIXED MEDIA

          Est: $4,000 - $6,000

          GUY GREY-SMITH (1916-1981) NULLAGINE COUNTRY Signed and dated 65 lower right Mixed media 29 x 51cm Estimate $4,000/6,000 AUD

          GFL Fine Art
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