Brought to Light Australian Art 1850-1965

'A GRAND DISPLAY OF LINEAR ECSTASIES' Ian Fairweather Kite flying Candice Bruce Facing page Ian Fairweather Scotland/Australia 1891-1974 Kite flying 1958 Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on cardboard on composition board 129.4x194cm Purchased 1985 with the assistance of funds raised through a special Queensland Art Gallery Foundation appeal and with a contribution from the Queensland Art Gallery Society Right Ian Fairweather Epiphany 1962 Synthetic polymer paint on cardboard on composition board 139.6x203.2cm Purchased 1962 Queensland Art Gallery D uring the 1994 exhibition 'Fairweather' a new audience had the opportunity of seeing the most comprehensive collection of the artist's work for at least thirty years. For me, two things became clear: the first was a thematic thread in his work centred around his isolation as a child, and the second was his successful use of the techniques of Chinese calligraphy. My starting point here is with two essays in the exhibition catalogue by Drusilla Modjeska and Pierre Ryckmans.1 In his essay, 'An amateur artist', Ryckmans drew on his knowledge of Chinese culture to discuss the similarities between Fairweather's ascetic and disciplined life, a life totally devoted to art, and that of classical Chinese aesthetes for whom artistic endeavour was a moral act. Drusilla Modjeska, in 'Painting Mother' examines the psychological scars incurred by Fairweather following his separation from his mother as an infant and how this experience surfaced in the oft-repeated images of mother, child and family in Fairweather's art. This early experience of virtual abandonment had a profound effect on Fairweather, not the least being that it made him forever antisocial. He was a difficult man who probably would have been considered an oddity in most places, let alone the conservative and limited society that was Australia in the 1930s and 1950s (Fairweather first came to Australia in 1933). The restlessness that kept him travelling the world for decades tagged him as an eccentric, a hermit, an impression reinforced by his apparent lack of interest in personal appearance. For Ian Fairweather, widely read and fluent in several languages, painting was the if * % » f 4 \*£jtz • o T f ’ 7 ;i ' i - r substance of his life, the only thing that really mattered. He deemed it 'impossible to define or discuss', but found both satisfaction and comfort through his work. Though he entertained himselfwith detective stories and magazines, as well as a diverse range of writers from Colette and Carson McCullers, to Arthur Koestler and Henry Miller, it was to mythology that Fairweather was most drawn. Biblical, Chinese, Norse, Greek, Indian and Aboriginal myths inspired his art, and references can be found in the titles of many of his paintings. And though he dismissed formal religion from an early age, biblical and spiritual themes comprise the subject matter of some of his most important works. In fact Fairweather developed an obsession for painting the rituals of religious and communal practice. Epiphany 1962 (Queensland Art Gallery), Last Supper 1958 (private collection) and Marriage at Cana 1963 (National Gallery of Australia) are all works that involve important feasts, though characteristically the moment depicted in Epiphany is the Slaughter of the Innocents. Hallelujah 1958 (National Gallery of Victoria), Candle Mass 1957 (private collection) and Ave Maria 1957 (Art Gallery ofWestern Australia) are based on Christian songs and liturgical celebrations. Kiteflying 1958 (QAG), Anak Bayan 1957 (The Art Gallery of New South Wales) and Monastery 1961 (NGA) involve themes from eastern religions — moments when groups gather together in ceremony. House by the sea 1967 (NGA) and Turtle and temple gong 1965 (James Fairfax Collection) evoke memories of temples 270 BROUGHT TO LIGHT: Australian Art 1850-1965