​Gord Smith
Triptych, 1981
bronze, steel, 375 x 112 x 94 centimetres

Part of Gord Smith’s Pillar Series, Triptych is an excellent example of the towering abstract sculptures with a hint of human form. Smith started exploring these "Pillars" in 1976 and continued to develop the aesthetic into 1982. These individually cast bronze figures look like jagged rocks protruding forcefully out of the ground and subtly morphing into bodies as they extend to the sky. The trio here is arranged in a huddle as if they are in discussion.

​About Gord Smith

Gord Smith was born in Montreal in 1937. He studied engineering and architecture at Sir George Williams University and spent his young adulthood working with an architectural firm. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1967. He has taught at both the University of Victoria and McMaster University in the arts. He currently lives in Toronto and continues to create under the guidance of his design philosophy:

Everything — materials, texture, size, design and statement in a work of art — welds together to a point where there exists only the work itself. It just happens. A work of art does not need interpretation. It does not matter who or what I am, it is the work that is important — it should be timeless and with a power of its own. If it speaks, it will be heard and what I say about it is not important.