Ian Fairweather

(Scotland, Australia 29 Sep 1891–20 May 1974)

Title

Triple portrait

Other titles:

(Elephant)

Year

(circa 1970-circa 1971)

Media category

Painting

Materials used

synthetic polymer paint on paperboard on hardboard

Dimensions

106.1 x 75.2cm board; 122.6 x 91.5 x 6.5cm frame

Signature & date

Not signed. Not dated.

Credit

Purchased 1975

Accession number

63.1975

Copyright

Location

Not on display

Further information

"Well, my real working used to be to carry around a small sketchbook and make studies from various things I saw, but in time I got interested only in a few subjects and I didn't want to go around looking for any more subjects. The problem was to do the one subject, and so it practically boiled down to that. By one subject I mean ... people."
- Ian Fairweather 1965

As Ian Fairweather's work developed it grew more summary and monumental, giving way to symbolic abstraction. Style and subject became unified, his final works increasingly painterly and meditative, with a profound influence on younger abstract artists in Sydney in particular.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2000

Bibliography (9)

Murray Bail (Australia, b.1941) (Author), Ian Fairweather, Sydney, 2009, 225, 235 (colour illus.), 260. plate no. 202; cat.no. 231; titled '(Elephant)'

Lou Klepac (Australia; Croatia, b.1936) (Author), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Bruce James (Australia) (Author), John McDonald (Australia, b.1961) (Author), Peter Pinson (Australia, b.1943) (Author), Gavin Fry (Author), Sasha Grishin AM (Australia) (Author), Deborah Hart (South Africa; United Kingdom; Australia, b.1959) (Author), Australian painters of the twentieth century, Roseville, 2000, 39 (colour illus.).

Louise Sweetland (Australia) (Editor), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Elizabeth Cross (Australia, b.1943) (Author), Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Southern Reflections: 10 contemporary Australian artists, Domain, 1998, 39 (colour illus.). figure no. 10

Murray Bail (Australia, b.1941) (Author), Mary Eagle (Australia, b.1944) (Author), Drusilla Modjeska (Author), Martin Armiger (Author), Joanna Capon (Australia) (Author), Pierre Ryckmans (Author), Fairweather, Australia, 1994, 136 (colour illus.), 143. plate no. 64

Barry Pearce (Australia) (Author), Older Australian masters: an exhibition of works by major Australian artists executed in the later years of their careers, Domain, 1991, (colour illus.). not paginated; no catalogue numbers

Deborah Edwards (Australia) (Author), Two centuries of Australian painting: a selection from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, New South Wales, 1986, 40 (illus.). cat.no. 43

'Ian Fairweather' p140-143, Australian Art Review 1982, 1982, 141 (colour illus.).

Murray Bail (Australia, b.1941) (Author), Ian Fairweather, Sydney, 1981, 213, 216, 217 (colour illus.), 248. plate no. 112; cat.no. 204

'Breaking the territorial mould: some thoughts from a new head curator' by Jill Sykes, pg. 30-31., Look Sep 2011, Sep 2011, 31 (colour illus.).

Exhibition history (6)

Two centuries of Australian painting, a selection from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Orange Regional Gallery, 19 Apr 1986–15 Jun 1986.

Older Australian masters: an exhibition of works by major Australian artists executed in the later years of their careers, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 16 Mar 1992–12 Apr 1992.

Fairweather (1994), Queensland Art Gallery, 01 Oct 1994–27 Nov 1994.

Fairweather (1994), National Gallery of Victoria [St Kilda Road], 17 Dec 1994–19 Feb 1995.

Fairweather (1994), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 22 Mar 1995–07 May 1995.

Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000.

Collection

Ian Fairweather