Richard Smith "Kite Paintings" an installation comprising 14 elements, 1985. Each work acrylic on shaped canvases with canvas straps and aluminum rods. Each work with 3"D wooden disk initialed and dated on one side with the corresponding work number on the other. Various sizes with the largest measuring: 109"H x 221"W.PROVENANCE:This work was originally commissioned by the Zales Corporation for their International headquarters in Irving, Texas.LITERATURE:Richard Smith: Kite Paintings, October 15 - November 14, 2015, Flowers Gallery, New York (similar examples illustrated).Individual measurements: #1: 111"H x 114"W; #2: 109"H x 169"W; #3: 109"H x 135"W; #4: 66"H x 171"W; #5: 86"H x 191"W; #6: 96"H x 213"W; #7: 59"H x 138"W; #8: 75"H x 154"W; #9: 69"H x 135"W; #10: 75"H x 134"W; #11: 109"H x 221"W; #12: 89"H x 134"W; #13: 75"H x 157"W; #14: 75"H x 136"W.NOTE:All proceeds from the sale of this lot go directly to Equest, a 501 (c)(3) public charity located in Wylie, Texas, specializing in a non-profit therapeutic riding program benefitting children and adults alike. When faced with the task of filling the atrium of a large corporate building in the early 1980s, Richard Smith (British, 1931-2016) implemented the use of a body of work he had been developing over the last decade in his studio. Smith had been working with the idea of "Kite Paintings" since around 1975, freeing the canvas from the stretcher, painting both sides, using dowels and string as a method of both support and formal choice. While sometimes shown against the wall both flying solo and in groups, other situations found multiple works filling a space almost replicating the implied motion of a single form in flight. They began as single forms with minimal designs, eventually utilizing both rectilinear and curvilinear lines and more daring color schemes, alternating from one side to the other. Seen as an installation of fourteen bold shapes filling the air above an everyday common space trafficked by many, these whimsical flying forms evoke both the playfulness and color of their titular inspiration along with the unyielding formal experimentation of their maker.