Best of Vincent Smarkusz Introduction Gallery
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Through the 1960s Smarkusz painted New Age inspired
"Eden Frolic" dreamscapes, in a fabulist Mythic-realism*
blending realism, figurative abstraction, and symbolism. -
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Smarkusz named a collection of his Eden Frolic dreamscape paintings "A Garden of Earthly Pleasure", and exhibited them in his final NYC show during the month of December 1973.
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Vincent also painted mythopoetic images of close family members during the 1960s - using various degrees of realism, abstraction, and symbolism.
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Smarkusz created a "Months of the Year" series in his 1960s Eden Frolic style. All twelve are on display in the Mancent Collection gallery of this website.
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The artist celebrated his birth month with mythic and private symbolism - including himself as the water bearer of Aquarius adorned in colorful birds of spiritual rapture.
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Traveling back in time from the 1960s to the 1950s, we'll see the stranger, darker imagery Smarkusz produced just prior to his bright and lucid Eden Frolic dreamscapes....
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In the 1950s, Smarkusz created abstract figurative art we call "Fusionism", which increased in abstraction over seven years. Vincent often referred to the subject matter in his imagery as simply "dreams and nightmares".
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Smarkusz painted his earliest abstract Fusionism in the early 1950s.
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Middle Fusionism turned more religious, mythomorphic, distorted and dark in the mid 1950s. Vincent produced many as India ink and watercolor paintings when he was struggling the hardest with depression.
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Smarkusz employed a Surrealist automatism technique to guide his hand as he expressed his visions. Spontaneous figures and expressions would appear as strange fusions of birds, beasts, humans and angels.
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Smarkusz visited Israel in 1960. Forty two of his late abstract "Fusionism" paintings where exhibited at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Crafts in Jerusalem. With these he completed the final phase of his abstract Fusionism.
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Prior to abstract painting in the 1950s, the young Smarkusz created genre drawings while in the Army during WWII, then studied painting in Mexico from 1946 to 1947. After which, he created lithographic prints at Hartford Art School, completed his BFA degree, and moved to Boston in 1950.
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Pen and ink drawing of fellow soldiers during downtime in the Pacific during WWII.
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After serving five years in WWII, Smarkusz created lithographic prints in a blend of Social Realism and Figurative Expressionism while attending Hartford Art School in Connecticut.
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Smarkusz developed his painting skills while in Mexico from 1946 to 1948 at the Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes in San Miguel de Allende.
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Vincent had mastered the art of painting in oils by the late 1940s. This self-portrait was created right after his return from Mexico in 1948.
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This lithographic print is of the artist's mother - created by him after returning home from WWII. It is one in a series of lithographs he created while back at Hartford Art School completing his BFA degree.
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"Commuters" 1949 - is a lithograph in the artist's 1940s Figurative Expressionist style of Social Realism.
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At the age of 30, themes of anxiety and depression emerge in Vincent's imagery. Perhaps in reaction to WWII, the Cold War threat, or some other deep existential dread.
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By 1950, Vincent Smarkusz had moved to Boston to live, work, and study. He created drawings and sketched compositions while working as a night watchman. During the day he created Expressionist paintings and attended classes at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
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Smarkusz created dozens of these quick "Christine Series" paintings in the late 1950s - using broad bold swipes of color, interpainted with flowing figurative linework.
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From the late-60s to mid-70s, Smarkusz created abstract portraits we call "Aura View" - Expressionist figures interwoven with abstract Color-field patterns of emotion. This was the final style of acrylic painting Smarkusz created, up until his death in late 1974.
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"Final Peace" was painted by Vincent shortly before his death in late 1974. It has been interpreted as symbolizing his ultimate and eternal reconciliation with family in Heaven.
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After all his forays into the realms of abstract and surreal image making, Smarkusz had never abandoned his original love of Genre painting.
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"Freedom" is the Eden Frolic painting Smarkusz used to promote his final NYC exhibit in autumn of 1973. The solo show presented at least fifteen paintings and was titled "A Garden of Earthly Pleasure".
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Vincent Theodore Smarkusz - 1919 to 1974
From 1939 when he was 20, until his death at age 55 in 1974, Vincent T. Smarkusz created diverse and fascinating images in several styles* and techniques - blending Social Realism and Genre painting with Expressionism, Surrealism, and illustrative Mythic-realism*.
Vincent's unique imagery evolved over 35 years:
- From a stylized mix of Social Realism and Figurative Expressionism in the 1940s
- Into figurative abstractions we describe as mythomorphic "Fusionism" during the 1950s
- Then onto his illustrative Mythic-realism "Eden Frolic" dreamscapes through the 1960s
- Ending with Expressionist portraits we call "Aura View" through the 1960s into the '70s
His final "protraits" are a combination of Figurative Expressionism and abstract Color field painting - portraying abstracted human figures as individuals and in pairs, engaged in sensual activities or poses, viewed through colorful auras of mystery, fantasy, and emotion.