{"id":31588,"date":"2016-01-13T00:50:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-13T06:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=31588"},"modified":"2023-11-25T15:39:30","modified_gmt":"2023-11-25T21:39:30","slug":"for-what-its-worth-the-life-and-art-of-tony-smith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/for-what-its-worth-the-life-and-art-of-tony-smith\/","title":{"rendered":"For What It’s Worth: The Life and Art of Tony Smith"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"OLYMPUS<\/a>

Frank Anthony “Tony” Smith, photo by Portia Snow<\/p><\/div>\n

He\u2019d rather show his work at Smith\u2019s grocery store on the Avenues \u2013 galleries don\u2019t agree much with Frank Anthony Smith anymore. But you can see his latest drawing, \u201cThe Big Tiny,\u201d in a show opening January 16 in The Gallery at Library Square.<\/p>\n

He told me last year during a studio visit that the library \u201ckind of treats the drawing like a sacred papyrus. Which it kind of is to me, and answers the four main questions people always ask . . . How long did it take? How much is it worth? What does it mean? And, is it art?\u201d<\/p>\n

He looked forward to going down to the studio several days a week to work on the piece\u2014then about the size of a card table and a half, as I recall. At 75 you can do whatever you want to do, he said. He has a few things in his daily life he needs to take care of, and he does, but the rest is drawing and his beloved golf. He started on \u201cThe Big Tiny\u201d six months before I visited and planned to work on it until it was all filled in\u2014another six months or the rest of his life, whatever it takes, he said. Smith explains that he is trying to do what the Cubists did and bring out the negative space in the drawing to the forefront.<\/p>\n