Richard Smith (b. 1931)

During the 1960s and 1970s, Smith experimented with the shaped painted surface of the canvas and its relationship with surrounding space. He was initially influenced by the advertising billboards which incorporated elements that project beyond the frame. He applied and adapted this in his work to develop his paintings beyond the flat, two dimensional surface.
He comments in an interview with Anne Seymour 'Working with very traditional materials - canvas, paint and wooden stretcher - to get new things you have to stretch the uses of the material' (see Exhibition catalogue, Richard Smith, XXXV Venice Biennale, London, 1970, unpaginated).