Terrain Vague

Research background: 'Terrain Vague' was a lecture given in August 2013 by Leon van Schaik in response to the work of one of Australia's most important painters - Jeffrey Smart (1921 - 2013). The 55-minute lecture was delivered as part of 'Master of Stillness: Jeffrey Smart paintings 1940 - 2011' at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria. Museum director Victoria Lynn invited van Schaik to speak. The lecture was subsequently broadcast on YouTube and an edited version of the text was published by 'Architecture Australia' ('Terrain Vague in the work of Jeffrey Smart: Lessons for urban design', 19 August 2013 http://architectureau.com/articles/jeffrey-smart/). Research contribution: 'Terrain Vague' discussed Jeffrey Smart's vision and the influence of 'undesigned space' in his paintings on architecture and urban design. Van Schaik surveyed relevant art, film and cultural studies scholarship and criticism and used his own innovative exploratory 'ideogram' drawings to find new meanings Smart's paintings and perspective. He then used Smart's paintings to discuss the poetics of architecture and urban design, including explosive urban development. Research significance: 'Master of Stillness' was a major retrospective of Jeffrey Smart's work and it was held at TarraWarra, one of Australia's leading regional collections of contemporary art. The significance of van Schaik's 'Terrain Vague' lecture is demonstrated by its subsequent publication in a leading architecture trade magazine, 'Architecture Australia'