Author Description

To his many friends, Sydney Ure Smith was "Dear old Syd"; to others he was a statesman of the arts. Some found Ure Smith too conservative, others saw him as too liberal. Yet all agreed that until his death in 1949 his obsession with quality publishing, promotion of innovative commercial art, support for the visual arts, and patronage of many artists made him a powerful force in Australia's cultural life. In assessing his achievements, Underhill analyzes how Ure Smith's enthusiasm "to make Australia progress" resulted in seemingly paradoxical tastes and loyalties. In this unconventional biography, Underhill has been intentionally discursive, providing a detailed canvas of the Sydney social, publishing, and artistic worlds to make sense of Ure Smith's influence. Her provocative study of this remarkable man opens up new perspectives on the Australian art and publishing worlds from 1916 to 1949, a period of conflicting currents as "modern" met "traditional" (usually British) in Australian art. Ure Smith was an essential nexus in this interplay.