Bob and Roberta Smith
Bob and Roberta Smith is recognised for his trademark, text-based paintings. These colourful signs are hand painted onto scraps of wood and roughly nailed together. The shapes and misshapes of letters are as important as the message they spell out. These fields of colour ask questions, make statements and instigate debate. Letters swim before your eyes as you attempt to decipher a text, which could be an announcement of an event or provocative call for action. Bob and Roberta Smith’s work explores the relationship between humour, politics and society and questions established values and authorities. Many works take the form of succinct witty slogans whilst others, such as the Browne Report and Letter to Michael Gove, are longer diatribes that expose a frustration with political decision-making. The messages almost always advocate for creativity, culture and freedom.
These paintings use the visual language of folk and punk; the use of drop shadow text and a mixture of different fonts and letter sizes evoke the aesthetics of protest and are reminiscent of makeshift public notices and temporary shop signs from an era before the computer.
The process of producing these musings on art, politics and culture seems to be a cathartic one for Bob and Roberta Smith, which is perhaps why the artist advises ‘Make Your Own Damn Art’.
Exhibitions at Plymouth Arts Centre are free to browse.
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