Bernard Smith

Bernard Smith (1916–2011) was an Australian art historian and critic whose studies reshaped the understanding of Australian art, especially its colonial history and cultural conditions.

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European art: Art produced within the changing artistic traditions of Europe. Smith traced how European artistic conventions shaped colonial images of Australia.
European Vision and the South Pacific: Bernard Smith’s 1960 study of European visual representations of the South Pacific. This book established his influential account of European images of the region.
William Moore: An Australian art historian and critic whose writings helped establish the study of Australian art. Moore’s earlier histories formed part of the tradition Smith critically reassessed.
Postcolonial art history: The study of art in relation to colonial rule, its legacies, and resistance to them. Smith’s attention to colonial visual culture anticipated questions central to this approach.
Australian art: Art made in Australia or closely connected to Australian life and culture. This was the field Smith helped reinterpret through its colonial history.
The Art of Captain Cook’s Voyages: Bernard Smith’s study of visual records produced during Captain James Cook’s Pacific voyages. It shows how expedition images documented and interpreted Pacific encounters.
John McCaughey: An Australian art historian, critic, and university administrator who influenced postwar art institutions. McCaughey shared Smith’s role in shaping Australian art history and criticism.
Visual culture: The study of images and visual practices as parts of social and cultural life. Smith treated artworks as evidence of broader cultural attitudes, not isolated objects.
Colonialism: A system in which a power controls and settles territories beyond its established borders. Smith examined how colonial power shaped artistic representation and cultural identity.
Australian Painting 1788–1960: Bernard Smith’s survey of Australian painting from British colonization through the mid-twentieth century. The book follows the development of Australian painting across the period Smith studied.