The cargo painting by artist Jeff Smart is called Study for Containers and Silos at Zivorno (1990), oil on board (41 cm x 53 cm).
Jeff Smart (Full name: Frank Jeffrey Edson Smart), was born in Adelaide on 26 July 1921. An expatriate Australian painter, he is known for his precision and depictions of urban landscapes that are ‘full of private jokes and playful allusions’. Smart lived in Tuscany for 40 years until his death from renal failure in Arezzo, on 20 June 2013, aged 91. For further information see my earlier post on Smart’s use of crates in art.
- Smart once made the remark that he enjoyed spending time amidst the ambience of commercial ports and docks. He had a passion for sketching and photographing shipping containers, structures and sea-bound freight but occasionally would get into a scrape when a dockworker inquired: ‘What are you doing?’
I think of this artwork every time I pass the docks and see the variety of international shipping containers appear, disappear and reappear during the year.
- My favourite shipping container is the Danish company – Maersk. To sound its name out loud makes me feel like I am swearing, not like shouting out MSC, Cosco or Hamburg Sud.
Just saying it | Maersk!
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