PROVENANCE
Collection of the artist

In 2014, Smither asked people from his daily life to sit for him. He cites the images and atrocities in world news as his stimulus for five portraits completed in 2018. This rare self portrait and the one of his partner Gian McGregor are included in this auction. These head shots capture the vitality in faces he knows well. The three other portraits featured Dr David Wilson, Catherine Corcoran and Sue Collins.

Despite having to contend with constant pain and depleted stamina, Smither remains engaged and stimulated by the world and his own place in it. He contrasts these exceptional portraits with his 70s and 80s portraits... They are much less about the painter than the painted, he contends, about one human being looking at another human being, and often seeing the younger spirit within the well-worn face. I was thinking the other day about death and all that sort of thing, and I thought when it comes to announcing my death that you can say 'after a long and painful illness' because I've been in pain now, every day for nine years and it's actually beginning to wear me down, its worn me down to 1 hour, 2 hours a day, I'm exhausted you know, I find myself shaking my head, but there are pills for pain, so I take em!

I realise now how much more I'm putting into a painting now than I did in those days - Smither referring to his 1970s and 80s portraits... it's taking a lot lot longer, but it's a lot lot better, even I know its better, I don't need anybody else to tell me. Michael Smither in Michael Smither Portraits, a documentary by his friend Tony Hiles, 2016

The documentary Michael Smither Portraits can be viewed on the NZIFF website: https://ondemand.nziff.co.nz/#!/browse/ film/15441/michael-smither-portraits

The other eight films in the series can be accessed here https://ondemand.nziff.co.nz/#!/home

Born in New Plymouth in 1939, Michael Smither CNZM has produced a vast and varied body of work. He enrolled with the Elam School of Fine Arts Auckland in 1959 where he was taught by Anna Lois White, Robert Ellis and John Weeks. Returning to his birthplace he spent the majority of the 1960s working in the Taranaki region. He was highly active in the 1970s and 80s regularly exhibiting nationally.

Smither then abandoned painting for a number of years to concentrate on musical theory and composition, exploring a system of harmonic relationships. He went on to apply harmonics to other visual observations, as he worked in graphics, theatre, prints, artists' books and murals. As a composer and pianist, Smither developed a unique understanding of the correlation that existed between the world of colour and the world of sound. He was the recipient of the 1970 Frances Hodgkins Fellowship from the University of Otago and is the patron of community art gallery Real Tart in New Plymouth. In 2004 Michael Smither Painter, Trish Gribben, Ron Sang was published. A year later a retrospective titled The Wonder Years was held at Auckland Art Gallery, accompanied by Ron Brownson's publication The Wonder Years.

Michael Smither and his partner G'ian, live on the Coromandel Peninsula.