The History of Pre-Diction

By Demise Smith

Phil Demise Smith and Grard Sendrey have been nurturing their personal and professional
relationship for 15 years. They share space on both sides of the artistic fence
as organizers, representatives and creators of art, simultaneously. Grard founded
and was director of the Muse Cration Franche in Bgles, France while becoming one of Europes most prolific and sought after outsider artists. His recent retrospective in September 2010 exposed his many and varied styles and accompanying this exhibition, a beautiful catalogue was produced (available from Muse Cration Franche). Phil is a well-published poet, songwriter - performing musician, painter and artist representative (one of Grards representatives in the U.S.). This project was a labor of love. When Phil received this series of paintings from Grard, he was immediately inspired to react to the works through poetry. The result is this collaboration: The History of Pre-Diction.

The book itself contains reproductions of 23 small paintings (8"x12",1998)) by Grard Sendrey and 23 concretely abstracted poems by Phil Demise Smith, each poem an associative response to
Sendreys surreal images. Both the paintings and the poems create the atmosphere of a futuristic fairy tale. "Like a silent film, the language silently refers to the visual before a spoken language was heard (Pre-Diction)."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781469123868

Demise Smith

Gérard Sendrey Born in 1928, Gérard Sendrey lives in Bégles, a suburb of Bordeaux, France. He worked as an administrative executive until the age of 40, when he decided to devote the rest of his life to painting. He began drawing, employing a technique of finely meshed lines, obsessively covering the paper and creating a delicate graphic texture in which figures, mostly human, appear unexpectedly. He often works in a stylistic series, with each style employing a technique that he, himself, has created. Since 1979, Sendrey’s reputation, and demand for his artwork has grown. He had his first major retrospective this year at the Musée Création Franche, in Bégles, France. His works are in major collections throughout the world including the permanent collections of the Collection de L’Art Brut in Lausanne, L’Aracine in Villeneuve D’Ascq, the Fabuloserie in Dicy and Le Centre de Diffusion D’art en Marge in Brussels, the Museum de Stadshof in Zwolle and the American Museum of Folk Art in New York. Phil Demise Smith Born 1947 in Bronx, New York. Earned a BA degree in creative writing from Queens College (City University of New York) in 1970 and a Master of Fine Arts in poetry from Bowling Green State University in 1974. He studied poetry with William Packard, Howard McCord, Tom Raworth, Ray DiPalma, Anselm Hollo and Toby Olson. He’s had numerous books of poetry published including What I Don’t Know for Sure (Burning Deck) and Periods, selected writings 1972-1987 (gegenschein). He began painting in 1987 in his own natural style that has its aesthetic roots (routes) in the works of the German Expressionists, Kandinsky, Dubuffet, the CoBrA group, Outsider/Art Brut artists. He has had numerous one man and group shows in the U.S. and Europe. He is director of A Gallery @ Wares For Art and represents numerous outsider and self-taught artists from the U.S. and Europe as well as trained artists. He has written and recorded over 200 songs. Since 1975, he has played and created music in such infamous bands as NoYes, N.DoDo, Didus and the Fabulous Mascarenes, The Young Phogies and Art of the Middle Ages.

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