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BRUCE H. SMITH

b.1936

BiographySmith, Bruce Hixon (1936-), of Salt Lake City and Springville, Utah, is an extremely fine and creative painter in oils of realistic still-life and expressionistic figures. His work is a distinctive blend of contemporary design and traditional figure painting and drawing. He often features symbolist and spiritual themes in his work. Smith studied with Alvin Gittins and Doug Snow at the University of Utah and at the Arts Student League in New York City. Smith was an instructor at a junior college in Hobbs, New Mexico, before returning to Utah and a position at Brigham Young University, where he is now an art professor. "My goal," he said, "has been to amalgamate aspects of the old and modern traditions from Giotto to Max Beckman into an eccentric image that acknowledges my brotherhood and veneration for the past, yet responds to my present needs." (b. October 9)

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. ARTISTS OF UTAH. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999: 239.

Bruce Smith was born, raised and educated in Utah. He has studied extensively the art in major museums of America and Europe. Bruce received his BS from Brigham Young University and his MFA from the University of Utah. For over twenty years, he has been a faculty member at BYU. He was an assistant professor at New Mexico Junior College, Hobbs, New Mexico before coming to BYU. Prior to teaching, he was a professional potter and operated the B.H. Smith Pottery in Salt Lake City. His field of competence includes painting materials and techniques of oil painting and in depth study in major museums of Europe and America. Bruce actively exhibits nationally and locally.

My work answers a personal need to reflect antecedent images and mirror past attitudes. The Work's intent is to both honor and define a legacy which stretches from Giotto to Fritz Scholder - an infusion that discovers truth, finds kinship, acknowledges analogues, and unearths a tradition.

My work intends to profess hope and faith; it aspires to the lofty goal of conveying truth. These qualities, which are often associate with religion, are placed in to the magic matrix of color and form, aesthetic stuff, not religion - true religion does not require the pretense of "artful"; "to call upon the name of the Lord" and to "visit the sick and homeless" require no form of comeliness, no rhythm, no rhyme, no carefully spun melody - Yet in the midst of this complicated, seemingly "world gone crazy" existence, where contemporary thinking hints that outward appearances are not to be trusted, that very little is eternal, real or right, the simple naive presence of a truthful image formed in paint seems to glow "through a glass darkly." It apprises the individual that form has purpose, that verisimilitude has meaning. It inspires the understanding and brings about the realization that spring is no less real tan winter. It enlightens the discernment of true beauty and leads to the perception of eternal archetypes, seen form "afar off." WE perceive that this aesthetic balm of implications can heal misery and pain, chase away evil, hopelessness, and ineptitude, and quietly abate ugliness - if only for so short a time.

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