About this objectRichard Smith (1931 - 2016) was born in Letchworth Garden City. He attended primary school in Letchworth and secondary school in Hitchin. He attended art school in Luton and St Albans and then attended the Royal College of Art from 1954-57. From 1957 he spent a lot of his time in New York and resided there permanently from 1976. He returned to Letchworth a number of times and Letchworth Museum staged an exhibition of his works in the 1950s and in 1971. Recognised as one of the most important painters of his generation, his works feature in major collections throughout the world. M4 is the only work in our collection.
Pencil and crayon on paper. The work is divided into two, with the top half at the front of the frame, and the lower half curving backwards until it meets the back of the frame.
This work was produced during a period when the artist was experimenting with colour as well as shape. In an interview in 1966 he said: "I tend to think of colour ripening, or colour shimmering, and I think of hedges of colour because there is a density in my colour like the density of a hedge. You can see through the colour but it's still a solid wall, though you can penetrate and see the different part of the hedge on different levels."
Richard Smith described this particular work as follows: "The format of the piece relates to the forward plane coming up physically towards the front. It was just a nice shape. I did a series of these boxes. The shape was disappearing down the back".
