Michael Smither: Of Crimson Joy

The ninth episode of director Tony Hiles' documentary series 2009-2019 Michael Smither: The Next Ten Years.

"Smither continues to work on the large portraits of self and friends which we first saw in 2016. Abandoning the unsettling implications of jihadist propaganda he had entertained at the time, he reframes the imposing faces with collar-lines, engaging as ever in his narration of the visual ideas at play.

"Failure to sell the painting that was the subject of Light Through the Trees triggers a more radical act of recovery. In a case study for future students of pentimento, what originated as a study of winter light through the boughs of an ancient pohutukawa is reworked into an expression of high summer." (New Zealand International Film Festival)

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