Ian Fairweather (29 September 189120 May 1974) was a Scottish painter resident in Australia for much of his life. He combined western and Asian influences in his work.
Life
Ian Fairweather was born in
Bridge of Allan
Bridge of Allan ( sco, Brig Allan, gd, Drochaid Ailein), also known colloquially as ''Bofa'', is a town in the Stirling council area in Scotland, just north of the city of Stirling. Overlooked by the National Wallace Monument, it lies on the ...
,
Stirlingshire
Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling, gd, Siorrachd Sruighlea) is a historic county and registration countyRegisters of Scotland. Publications, leaflets, Land Register Counties. of Scotland. Its county town is Stirling.
It borders Perth ...
, Scotland in 1891. His parents returned to India when he was a baby, leaving him in the care of a great-aunt, and he did not see them again until he was 10 years old. He received early schooling at
Victoria College in Jersey, in London, and in
Champéry, Switzerland, before attending officer training school at
Belfast
Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...
where his rank was second lieutenant.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
he was captured by the Germans in France at the Battle of Mons and spent the next four years in
prisoner-of-war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...
s. While captured, he was permitted to study drawing and
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
. He was responsible for the illustrations in many POW magazines. His four-year incarceration included lengthy periods of solitary confinement as a result of repeated escape attempts.
After the war he studied art in the Netherlands, London and
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. In 1918, he studied at the
Royal Academy of Art
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
in The Hague, and then privately with
van Mastenbroek. In 1921 he attended the
School of Oriental Studies
SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury ar ...
studying Japanese and between 1920 and 1924 he attended the prestigious
Slade School of Fine Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
in London. From this time on he began a wandering existence travelling to Canada,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...
,
Bali
Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nu ...
,
Colombo
Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo me ...
and Australia. Wherever he was, he painted, and mailed paintings to galleries, initially with little commercial success. In 1934, in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, he joined artists
Lina Bryans
Lina Bryans (26 September 1909 – 30 September 2000), was an Australian modernist painter.
Life
Lina Bryans was born in Hamburg, Germany, on 26 August 1909, second daughter of wealthy prosperous Michaelis-Hallenstein family of industria ...
,
Ada Plante, William (Jock) Frater, Ambrose Hallen and others at Darebin Bridge House, a converted coach-house at
Darebin
The City of Darebin is a local government area in Victoria, Australia, in the northern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in June 2018 Darebin had a population of 161,609. Municipal offices are located at 350 High Street, Preston.
Dar ...
owned by Bryans. He began a mural for the Menzies Hotel at this time.
Later that year he left Australia via
Sydney
Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...
and
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...
for the Philippines. He then travelled to many places including Shanghai,
Peking
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
, Brisbane, Singapore and
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...
. He served with the
British Army
The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
, 5th Mahratta Light Infantry with the rank of captain in India from 1941 to 1943. Discharged from the army in 1943 he travelled to Australia and visited Melbourne
Cairns,
Cooktown
Cooktown is a coastal town and locality in the Shire of Cook, Queensland, Australia. Cooktown is at the mouth of the Endeavour River, on Cape York Peninsula in Far North Queensland where James Cook beached his ship, the Endeavour, for repai ...
, and Brisbane before eventually settling into a studio back at Darebin in Melbourne.
By this time his paintings had become widely known and had already been acquired by the CAS, London and the
Tate
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
and
Leicester
Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands.
The city l ...
City Gallery.
After moving back to Cairns and Townsville, in 1951 he moved to
Darwin where, after living in abandoned trucks and boats, and probably suffering from depression, he built a raft and embarked on a solo voyage into the open sea.
Thought by the Australians to have perished after searches were unsuccessful, he survived and beached on
Rote Island
Rote Island ( id, Pulau Rote, also spelled ''Roti'') is an island of Indonesia, part of the East Nusa Tenggara province of the Lesser Sunda Islands. According to legend, this island got its name accidentally when a lost Portuguese sailor arrive ...
in Indonesia. Discovered by Indonesian authorities, he was imprisoned & eventually deported. He travelled to London via Singapore and returned to Brisbane in 1953, aged 62. He built a hut on
Bribie Island in Queensland, where he lived for the rest of his life except for visits to India and London during the 1960s.
Works
One of his paintings, ''Monastery'', acquired by the
National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...
, was described by critics at the time as a masterpiece. It was singled out by fellow Australian artist
James Gleeson
James Timothy Gleeson (21 November 1915 – 20 October 2008) was an Australian artist. He served on the board of the National Gallery of Australia.
Early life
Gleeson was born in the Sydney district of Hornsby in 1915 and attended East Sydn ...
, who said, "He has fashioned an extraordinarily fascinating hybrid from the pictorial traditions of
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the calligraphy of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
...." (''
The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'', 14 June 1961)
He is one of the few European painters to have drawn extensively from
Oceanian art
Oceanic art or Oceanian art comprises the creative works made by the native people of the Pacific Islands and Australia, including areas as far apart as Hawaii and Easter Island. Specifically it comprises the works of the two groups of people who s ...
. His style has been described as "a paragon of sophisticated clumsiness". He often used the cheapest materials such as cardboard or newspaper and poor quality paints, and many of his works were lost or became damaged by the tropical climate in which he lived.
Fairweather's work was included in the exhibition "Australian Painting Today" at the Tate Gallery, London and in the same year was selected to represent Australia at the
São Paulo Art Biennial.
He is represented in all state galleries in Australia, the Tate Gallery, London, City Gallery, Leicester, and the
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...
, Belfast. Ironically, the only exhibition of his own works he ever saw was a 1964 retrospective at the
Queensland Art Gallery
The Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) is an art museum located in South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. The gallery is part of QAGOMA. It complements the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) building, situated only away.
The Queensland Art Galler ...
.
In 1965 Fairweather published "The Drunken Buddha" (University of Qld Press, Brisbane), which he had translated from the Chinese and illustrated with twelve of his paintings. It is a novel based on the life of Tao Chi whose eccentric approach to religious teaching was in accordance with an ancient and respected Chinese tradition of how a sage should behave.
Murray Bail
Murray Bail (born 22 September 1941) is an Australian writer of novels, short stories and non-fiction. In 1980 he shared the Age Book of the Year award for his novel ''Homesickness.''
He was born in Adelaide, South Australia. He has lived most ...
has written the monograph ''Fairweather'' (1981; revised edition 2009).
''Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters'' by Claire Roberts and John Thompson was published in October 2019 by
Text Publishing
Text Publishing is an independent Australian publisher of fiction and non-fiction, based in Melbourne, Victoria.
Company background
Text Media was founded in Melbourne in 1990 by Diana Gribble and Eric Beecher, along with designer Chong Weng ...
.
In April 2019 Fairweather's painting "Barbecue" sold for $1.7 million.
See also
*
Australian art
References
External links
Ian FairweatherThe Ian Fairweather ProjectIan Fairweatherat the
Art Gallery of New South WalesIan Fairweather on Artabase ''Chi-tien Goes Begging'' 1964
A reclusive Australian painter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fairweather, Ian
1891 births
1974 deaths
People educated at Victoria College, Jersey
Scottish emigrants to Australia
20th-century Australian painters
20th-century British male artists
20th-century Scottish painters
Modern painters
People from Bridge of Allan
British Army personnel of World War I
Scottish painters
Alumni of SOAS University of London
Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art
British Army officers
British Army personnel of World War II
Royal Academy of Art, The Hague alumni
British World War I prisoners of war
Australian male painters
British emigrants to Australia