The man behind Scottish art scene

THE term “art critic” implies a negativity which by and large doesn’t exist in the writers who sally forth into the art world to create vivid pen portraits of the art they see and the artists they meet. Art critics tend to be art lovers. Not fighters. So it was with the late W Gordon Smith.

Smith wrote about art for the likes of Visual Arts Scotland and Scotland on Sunday in an accessible and upbeat fashion from 1980 until his death in 1996. But writing was just one of the many strings Smith had to his creative bow. Author, poet, dramatist and photographer, he was also a prolific and pioneering filmmaker, who made more than 100 Scope and Spectrum arts documentaries for BBC Scotland from 1969 to 1980. Along the way, Smith became an avid collector of art and enthusiastic supporter of artists.

The “W” at the start of his name was not an affectation as many thought, but a bid by the Edinburgh-born Hibernian fan to differentiate himself from Hibs and Scotland winger, Gordon Smith, a contemporary. Smith – the fan, not the footballer, started his career in journalism with the Dalkeith Advertiser and then the Edinburgh Evening Dispatch, so there was a rational mind at work here. The two men agreed that the “W” would differentiate between their names when they appeared in print.

Smith met his second wife, Jay Gordonsmith, when she applied for a temporary job with his production team at BBC Scotland in Edinburgh in the late 1960s. She became his wingwoman. First in work and then in life. Their collecting motto was simple; they both had to love the work and spend no more than £1000 on it. It was never intended to be a collection, and after a purchase had been made, artists were usually invited to the home they shared at Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, to view their work.

One of the artists, Annette Edgar, recalls: “The first time I went to their house, Gordon told me in his big booming deep voice that I was going to be sitting next to a handsome six-foottall guy. It turned out, I was… in the shape of a huge painting of mine of a running figure which he’d bought at the old 369 Gallery in Edinburgh.

“Gordon was very unassuming but very, very knowledgable about art. And

Jay was a lovely woman who was a great support to him. They were very good at rooting out people and artists and they became very good friends of mine. I was devastated when he died. As were so many of the artists he supported.”

Gordonsmith kept on buying art after her husband died. In her final years, she was one of the most generous patrons of the visual arts in Scotland, making donations to the main exhibiting organisations in Scotland, all of them artist-run. The Royal Scottish Academy, The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour, Visual Arts Scotland and the Society of Scottish Artists are the main beneficiaries of her bequest, which provides a ten-year guarantee of funding for prizes and residencies.

Some of the artists in the Smith’s collection; Jack Vettriano, John Byrne, Peter Howson, George Wyllie, John

Bellany and Avril Paton, are well-kent figures beyond the confines of the Scottish art world. But to those who follow the comings and goings of the Scottish art scene, the roll call reads like a who’s who of mid-20th century – early 21st century Scottish art.

HUGH Adam Crawford? Check. Pat Douthwaite? Check. Alexander Moffat? Check. James Morrison? Check. Craigie Aitchison? Check. Margot Sandeman? Check. Willie Rodger? Check. The stellar list goes on and on. In the course of his art critic years, Smith visited several exhibitions a week and his eye was keen and constant. There are several portraits of Smith in the collection, including ones by Moffat and by Hugh Adam Crawford (Joan Eardley’s tutor at the Glasgow School of Art). Both were subjects of TV programmes he made about them in the early 1970s.

Highlights from the unique collection are now available to view – and buy – online in a new exhibition staged by