Remembering Bernard Smith

Bernard Smith, 1916-2011, was a fixture in art history circles in Australia for seven decades. Engaged and committed, he was still writing complex, insightful narratives about art into his eighth and ninth decades, and inter alia vigorously defending any incursion on or critique of his imperium. His passing marks not only the end of an era for art history in Australia, but he was perhaps the last survivor of those towering, paternal, left of centre figures who so greatly influenced and surveilled, rightly or wrongly, the interpretation of Australian culture and the development of humanities scholarship in post-war Australia.