ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections LIST OF WORKS

Ian Fairweather, Mother and Child, 1935, Ian Fairweather, Head, 1946 (cast 1986), Ian Fairweather, Figure Group in the Rain, c. Ian Fairweather, (Street in Soochow), 1948, oil and pencil on paper on hardboard, 62.5 bronze, 40 x 17 x 12.8 cm. State Art 1961, oil on board, 106 x 76 cm gouache, 19 x 19.5 cm x 50 cm Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Janet Holmes à Court Collection Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth The University of Western Australia Art Gift of Mrs , 1992 Collection, Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest Ian Fairweather, The Water Buffalo, c. 1960, Ian Fairweather, (Tombs at Peking), c. 1936, Ian Fairweather, Mother and Child, 1933, mixed media on board, 38 x 55.5 cm gouache, 38 x 36.5 cm Ian Fairweather, Houseyard, Peking, 1935, oil and charcoal on paper laid down on Janet Holmes à Court Collection Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth oil and pencil on paper on hardboard, 55.5 cardboard, 38.8 x 37.2 cm x 56 cm Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth Ian Fairweather, Head, c. 1934, oil and pencil Ian Fairweather, Outside the Walls of Peking, The University of Western Australia Art on cardboard, 43.8 x 37.4 cm 1935, oil and pencil on cardboard, 49.5 x Collection, Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest Ian Fairweather, (Bathers), 1933, oil and Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth 58 cm gouache on paper, 35.5 x 43 cm Private Collection, Perth Ian Fairweather, Tethered Horses outside Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth Ian Fairweather, Cornsifting, Soochow, Gate, Peking, 1936, oil on paper on 1945-47, gouache and pencil on paper, 35.2 Ian Fairweather, Boys Playing, 1955, cardboard, 76.5 x 77.5 cm Ian Fairweather, Smiling Girl, 1926, oil on x 29.5 cm gouache on cardboard, 36.8 x 49.5 cm The University of Western Australia Art canvas, 37 x 32 cm Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth Private Collection, Perth Janet Holmes à Court Collection Collection, Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest Ian Fairweather, (Landscape, Soochow), Ian Fairweather, Painting I, 1960, synthetic Ian Fairweather, Landscape with Mountains, Ian Fairweather, Landscape, China, 1933, oil 1945-47, gouache on paper, 21 x 19.5 cm polymer paint and gouache on cardboard, 1936, oil and pencil on paper on cardboard, on cardboard, 38 x 49 cm Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth 68.9 x 86.3 cm Janet Holmes à Court Collection Private Collection, Perth 49 x 55.5 cm Ian Fairweather, (Canal, Foochow), 1945-47, The University of Western Australia Art Ian Fairweather, Foochow Canal, 1945-1949, gouache on paper, 36.4 x 38 cm Ian Fairweather, Painting VIII, 1960, synthetic Collection, Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest gouache on paper on plywood, 38 x 42 cm Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth polymer paint and gouache on cardboard, Ian Fairweather, Market, Foochow, 1945- Janet Holmes à Court Collection 72.4 x 94 cm Ian Fairweather, Walls of Foochow, 1945-47, Private Collection, Perth 1947, gouache, 38.1 x 43.2 cm Ian Fairweather, Drawing, c. 1963, synthetic gouache, 34.6 x 43 cm State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western polymer paint on cardboard, 104 x 132 cm Collection of Joy Halleen, Perth Australia. Purchased 1955 Janet Holmes à Court Collection

ORIENTing: With or Without You LIST OF WORKS

John Young, Drawing in Ten Parts #7, 1981, John Young, Through the Eyes of the Wolf: A Newell Harry, Untitled (Words and Pictures), Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Not for Sure #3, pencil on paper, 140.7 x 240.7 cm Traveler’s Mind Rinsed, 2012, digital print on 2012, dual-screen presentation of text and 2012, drafting paper, paper with vegetal Courtesy the artist photographic paper and chalk on blackboard images with sound fibres, ink, bitumen, gold leaf, dye and paint on paper, 72.6 x 102.4 cm (each) Courtesy the artist and Roslyn Oxley9 pigment, 80 x 120 x 35. Courtesy the artist John Young, Drawing in Ten Parts #9, 1981, Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon Gallery, pencil on paper, 140.7 x 240.7 cm Galleries, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Not for Sure #4, Courtesy the artist Newell Harry, Reverse Missionary (Geist), 2012, drafting paper, paper with vegetal John Young, Through the Eyes of the 1996-2009, Quarter cast Green River Valley fibres, ink, bitumen, gold leaf, dye and John Young, Through the Eyes of the Wolf: Wolf: Dark Waters II, 2013, digital print on House-shield (maker unknown, Western pigment, 40 x 60 x 25 cm. Courtesy the artist Ancient Waters, 2012, digital print on photographic paper and chalk on blackboard Sepik region, Papua New Guinea) photographic paper and chalk on blackboard paint on paper, 72.6 x 102.4 cm (each) 150 x 75 x 5 cm. Courtesy the artist and Roy Wiggan, Sandbar & Hairbelt, 2003, paint on paper, 72.6 x 102.4 cm (each) Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney acrylic on plywood, cotton wool Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane Courtesy the artist and Short Street Gallery, Galleries, Brisbane Tom Nicholson, Drawings and Broome John Young, Through the Eyes of the Wolf: correspondence 4, 2011, Willow charcoal, John Young, Through the Eyes of the Wolf: Drunken Buddha, 2013, digital print on compressed charcoal and white pastel on Tintin Wulia, Nous ne notons pas les fleurs, Awakening, 2012 photographic paper and chalk on blackboard paper, 118 x 100 cm each (2 pieces) Jakarta, 2010, video octaptych (eight- digital print on photographic paper and paint on paper, 72.6 x 102.4 cm (each) Courtesy the artist and Milani Gallery, channel video unsynchronised) of game- chalk on blackboard paint on paper, 72.6 x Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon Brisbane performances and installation with video, 102.4 cm (each) Galleries, Brisbane colour, stereo, various durations, loop. Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Not for Sure #1, Courtesy the artist, Potato Head and Osage Galleries, Brisbane Newell Harry, Untitled (More Mumbo Jumbo: 2012, drafting paper, paper with vegetal Gallery Crackpots ‘n’ Poems for Ishmael Reed), fibres, ink, bitumen, gold leaf, dye and John Young, Through the Eyes of the 2010-2012, eight screen prints on hand- pigment, 40 x 60 x 25 cm. Courtesy the artist Wolf: Deep Solitude, 2012, digital print on beaten Tongan Ngatu (bark cloth), ink. photographic paper and chalk on blackboard 265 x 100 cm (each). Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Not for Sure #2, paint on paper, 72.6 x 102.4 cm (each) Collection of Amanda Love 2012, drafting paper, paper with vegetal Courtesy the artist and Philip Bacon fibres, ink, bitumen, gold leaf, dye and Galleries, Brisbane pigment, 60 x 120 x 20. Courtesy the artist ORIENTing

ORIENTing CAMPUS PARTNERS CURATOR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IAN FAIRWEATHER IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COLLECTIONS Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery would like to acknowledge its two campus partners for ORIENTing. WITH OR WITHOUT YOU Thank you to the artists Newell Harry, Tom Nicholson, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, WITH OR WITHOUT YOU CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE Roy Wiggan, Tintin Wulia and John Young; the lenders Amanda Love and Mary The Confucius Institute at UWA is a community outreach endeavour, jointly Nicholson. governed by The University of Western Australia and Zhejiang University, To artists’ representatives who have assisted with aspects of the background China. Confucius is one of China’s most revered philosopher-intellectuals, research and securing artwork loans: Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney; Milani LAWRENCE WILSON ART GALLERY and central to his thinking was the importance of empathy: the active Gallery, Brisbane; Arc One Gallery, ; 100 Tonson Gallery, Bangkok; understanding of others. The role of the Institute is to sponsor cross- Short Street Gallery, Broome; Osage Gallery, Hong Kong and Philip Bacon 4 MAY - 13 JULY 2013 cultural understanding in three broad areas: community teaching of Chinese Galleries, Brisbane. Thanks also to Monique O’Neil, Manager, Short Street and Chinese cultural forms, from calligraphy to tai-chi; assistance to the Gallery, Broome. Chinese teaching programs in the school sector; and the provision of cultural awareness training to the corporate sector. IAN FAIRWEATHER IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COLLECTIONS Thank you to the lenders: Art Gallery of Western Australia, Janet Holmes à Court ASIAN STUDIES Collection, Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, Mrs Joy Halleen, Perth, and Private Since its inception in 1993, Asian Studies at UWA has had the goal of equipping Collection, Perth. We acknowledge the generosity of the Joe and Rose Skinner students with a sound knowledge and understanding of the contemporary Bequest, The University of Western Australia Art Collection. societies and cultures of the Asian region. Asian Studies combines the insights Murray Bail for his support and advice. of politics, economics, geography, anthropology, history, cultural studies Veronica Fury for permission to screen Fairweather Man (Fury Productions, and language to encourage thinking across boundaries - whether cultural, 2009) during the exhibition. academic or linguistic. The programs in Asian Studies take seriously the Professor Ian Saunders, Acting Director, Confucius Institute at The University of University’s goal of building ‘cultural competence’ and a ‘global outlook’. Western Australia and Associate Dean, International, Faculty of Arts, and to our Besides teaching, staff contribute to furthering knowledge of the Asian Campus Partners for ORIENTing, Asian Studies, School of Social Sciences, and region and global interconnectedness through research and international Confucius Institute, The University of Western Australia. collaborations on issues such as popular culture, gender studies, state- society relations, media studies, governance, social change, education, the Published by the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery at The University of Western family, sexuality, national, ethnic and cultural identities, history, globalisation Australia, 2013. All rights reserved. and issues of social justice. ISBN - 978 1 876793 34 0

The Gallery thanks both campus partners for sharing their extensive We would also like to acknowledge our campus partners and sponsors. knowledge about Asian art and culture through the public program and publication associated with this exhibition.

DR HAROLD SCHENBERG ART CENTRE THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA LAWRENCE WILSON ART GALLERY 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, Australia 6009 OPEN TUES - SAT 11AM - 5PM P +61 (0)8 6488 3707 W www.lwgallery.uwa.edu.au – are a reflection of how his travels, through India, China, Bali, As Nicholson grapples with the slippages of narrative in the language , Thailand, New Guinea and other places, influenced his artistic of institutions, Newell Harry plays with their meaning through experimentation which sought to break the problems of defining a approximation and colloquial language. Harry, who has been working ORIENTing representative space in painting. in the Pacific and in Vanuatu, in particular, for more than a decade, says his work is playing with ‘what happens when two disparate Calligraphy and Chinese poetry were potent influences on Fairweather, contexts are drawn together.’7 Untitled (More Mumbo Jumbo: as they were on John Young. For example, Young’s work Through Crackpots ‘n’ Poems for Ishmael Reed) (2010-2012), and his two- - IAN FAIRWEATHER IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COLLECTIONS the Eyes of the Wolf (2011/13), incorporates photographic images of screen video work, Untitled (Words and Pictures) (2012) incorporate idyllic landscape with fragments of Chinese landscape poetry from word plays, the bastardisation of language, slips-of-tongue and - WITH OR WITHOUT YOU the Northern Song dynasty. For Young, it is the Song dynasty, where absurd re-orderings. For Harry, this functions as a platform to present the ‘scholar painter’, and the ‘hermit’ who shuns a life of bureaucracy the overhanging and silent legacies of colonisation, black politics for a simple cultured existence emerge (this invokes wonderful and trading histories within the Pacific. This experience in the Pacific ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections Landscape, China (1933) from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection, similarities to that very romantic image of Fairweather – the bellicose – in which Australia participated and from which it profited – is an presents works by Ian Fairweather from public and private collections can be read as a recollection of place as it was completed later in recluse living in a shanty). In an oblique way, both Fairweather and important historical context which remains mostly unrepresented in Western Australia, concentrating on paintings from the 1930s Bali, where Fairweather took a nine-month sojourn on his way to Young illustrate an elliptical revolution and transformation of ideas within the narrative of Australia’s modernity. and 1940s. Together these works act as a diary of sorts, revealing Australia. Balinese subjects can be seen in Bathers (1933), and that emerge when distinct painting styles and theories come together. Fairweather’s understanding of Chinese art and culture as he Mother and Child, (1933), both from the Kerry Stokes Collection. In Roy Wiggan is a Bardi man based in Broome and his Ilma are woven travelled through Asia, recording in situ or, commonly, at a later late 1933 Fairweather arrived in Perth and remained only three days. Phaptawan Suwannakudt’s use of calligraphy is dense and personal. string objects used in dance and ceremony. Sandbar & Hairbelt (2003) date from memory, what he had seen and experienced. Additionally, His disdain for the city is clearly voiced: ‘I know this place is terrible The text used in her paintings is a combination of Buddhist writing, is a suite of Ilma and features an important story of the artist’s father’s selected works have been included from the 1950s and 1960s that and I must get out of it.’4 From Perth he moved to Melbourne but soon and Thai social and art history. Not for Sure (2012) is a series of raft journey and escape from calamity. In Bardi culture, spirits of the are characteristic of his mature style of abstract painting, and which continued on to the Philippines and then to China, this time Peking. sculptural assemblages made from FedEx boxes and other packaging dead come to the living to give them songs in the form of dances. enable us to trace Fairweather’s artistic trajectory. Although there Here, Fairweather painted Houseyard, Peking (1935), now in The material used for shipping. Having been flattened then reassembled Wiggan receives regular visits from his father, Henry Wiggan’s spirit, are often quite stark differences between these painting styles, University of Western Australia Art Collection, and Outside the Walls into unusual and un-useable forms, the transformation of these who provides him with designs for the Ilma. Sandbar & Hairbelt refers from the delicate Post-Impressionist handling of brushwork in of Peking (1935), from a private Perth collection. In China he often humble cardboard structures echoes the artist’s own experience to a story about Henry and the sandbar just north of Broome on Cape the earlier works to the monumental late paintings, there remain lived in straitened circumstances and left in 1936 for the Philippines, of moving between Thai and Australian culture and is a realisation, Leveque off the Bardi Peninsula. It functions here as an alternate story 8 common threads, particularly in Fairweather’s abiding interest in the then Australia and finally India, where he spent much of the Second not only of the physical act of relocating, but of transformations of a ‘raft’ in history. immediacy and economy of calligraphic brushwork and his continual World War. He returned to Melbourne in 1943. Works completed there of the mind as one transitions between different places and social return, through recollection, to the indelible memories of his Asian include Landscape, Soochow (1945-47), Canal, Foochow (1945-47), environments. Though Fairweather marks out the possibility for a broader aesthetic travels. A painting in the exhibition such as The Water Buffalo (c. Walls of Foochow (1945-47), and Cornsifting, Soochow (1945-47), in appreciation and experimentation resulting from his travels and 1960), from the later period is evidence of this line of reference and the collection of Joy Halleen. Tintin Wulia’s Nous ne notons pas les fluers, Jakarta(2010) addresses observations of the immediate geography of Australia, how well has continuity. the element of human contingency in the mapping and description of this entered into the imagination of Australia, or even that of the In 1952, Fairweather undertook an audacious, and near-tragic journey the world. It is an ongoing project taking its title from the classic tale, region through which he passed? Looking at him, from our position in Ian Fairweather remains a somewhat anomalous figure in the annals sailing in a makeshift boat from Darwin, heading for Timor. Washed Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) (1943). the Twenty-First Century – a travelled, adventurous (British) recluse, of Australian art history. He was not Australian but he spent much of up on Roti in Timor sixteen days later, the artist was repatriated to In the story, a geographer tells the character Little Prince that when ultimately an outsider whose powerful and sensitive paintings have his life in this country and received significant support, particularly Britain, before returning to Australia in 1953 and settling on Bribie mapping the Earth, ‘we do not record flowers,’ because flowers, unlike been adopted into the art history of Australia’s Modernism – his legacy from Modernist art circles in Melbourne and Macquarie Galleries Island where his majestic late style was distilled. This period is the Earth, are ephemeral. The work presented in this exhibition is the opens up an historical context for an expanded conversation about the 5 in Sydney. He lived an extraordinary life of travel, which included represented though the paintings Boys Playing (1955), Painting I (1960) video installation - a version of the work first developed in Jakarta. nature of diaspora and its aesthetic treatment by artists. extremes of poverty, privation and psychological difficulty, but he and Painting VIII (1960), from a private collection in Perth. Engaging with local communities in Jakarta, Wulia used live flowers remained adventurous and single-minded in his pursuit of new and spices to connect the modern hopes and dreams of participants A number of threads emerge from this grouping of artists in With or places and experiences. Despite the eccentric nature of Fairweather’s This exhibition also offers an opportunity to contextualise significant with the history of the spice trade. The malleable masses of countries Without You – a preference for ephemeral materials that speak to existence he was not a complete outsider in artistic circles and though paintings in The University of Western Australia Art Collection and place, as described in Wulia’s ephemeral map, highlights modern these artists’ local conditions and the economies of exchange at work there was rarely a respite from financial woes, the quality of his work from the Joe and Rose Skinner Bequest: Mother and Child (1935), geopolitics and the rigidity of national projects in gentle, and at times within their artistic production; an expanded consideration of tradition, was recognised from early on in his career. From the 1930s his works Houseyard, Peking (1935), Tethered Horses outside Gate, Peking humorous, ways. history, text and language – how these morph and modulate through were shown in both Australia and London.1 (1936) and Landscape with Mountains (1936), all of which are key human networks and through time; and a consideration of artistic works in the exhibition. Tom Nicholson’s Drawings and Correspondence (2011) draws upon lineages and the kinds of knowledge systems that emerge outside of More than any other Twentieth-Century Australian painter, the display of Australia’s colonial past to unpack the process of being the mainstream. Fairweather remains in the minds of many contemporary artists as Fairweather’s work is defined by evocations of shifting geographies, misread and misrepresented within the collections of institutions a figure who seems to embody an almost complete commitment to of places recalled in memory, often selectively and in a fragmentary that are traditional centres of education, knowledge and power. With or Without You is based on the notion that Fairweather’s life the creative life. His absorption in the process of painting was akin way. Energy and beauty combine in landscape works which, though Nicholson worked with a fragment of a photograph from the collection and work provide an historical starting point from which to position to a religious experience. Yet, once finished, the final product was of notations of geographic locales, are also entries of experience, or of the State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, which ‘captured a native work and ideas being produced now, which embrace the floating little interest to him. Pierre Ryckmans, in his catalogue essay for the evidence of time spent at a particular destination. Fascination for the encampment, a short-lived Nineteenth Century ethnographic display historical, social and cultural influences emerging from our diverse 6 1994 exhibition of Fairweather’s work at the Art Gallery, work of Fairweather has not waned and both his art and approach in the Melbourne Zoo.’ Alongside a set of dense, dark drawings in histories in Asia and the Pacific. These are stories of an immediate describes the artist as an ‘amateur’ in the traditional Chinese sense, to creative pursuits remain a significant point of reference for many charcoal, Nicholson made an artist book that contains a set of fictional and sometimes intimate geography and illustrate a different kind where the work of the truly serious and dedicated practitioner is seen contemporary artists. correspondence that problematises the aesthetic intervention into of landscape experience occurring within (or in spite of) the usual as possessing real spiritual value.2 This dedication to the practice of colonial and institutional histories, while recognising a continuing record of our culture – a landscape within a landscape, a landscape painting has given Fairweather an unassailable place in the pantheon It is within this context that the idea for a companion exhibition historical blindness pervading the contemporary. progressing through the diverse and intuitive influences arising from of Australian artists. to Fairweather emerged. With or Without You is an exhibition of the experience and vision of artists. A landscape, ultimately, being contemporary work by six Australian artists: Newell Harry, Tom written with or with you. Born in 1891 in Bridge of Allen in Scotland, Fairweather was just six Nicholson, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Roy Wiggan, Tintin Wulia and months old when his military Surgeon-General father left for a post in John Young. It draws upon Ian Fairweather’s artistic legacy and his India.3 Remaining in Scotland, Fairweather was not to see his mother continuing influence on a contemporary appreciation of location, IAN FAIRWEATHER IN WESTERN AUSTRALIAN COLLECTIONS – Ted Snell & Sally Quin again until he was about ten years old. When his family settled on travel, history and geography. These artists seek to understand the WITH OR WITHOUT YOU – Aaron Seeto & Toby Chapman Jersey, Fairweather began to paint. As an adult, he completed his aesthetic impact of travel, borders, history and an understanding of officer training in readiness for the Great War. Captured on his second place that is constantly evolving. day of combat and made a prisoner-of-war in Ströhen, Germany, his time spent in captivity was surprisingly fertile. There, Fairweather With or Without You supposes that we are all fundamentally touched 1 Fairweather’s works were exhibited at Redfern Gallery, London, in 1935, 1936, 1937, 1942 and 1948. For a full exhibition history see Murray Bail, Fairweather began to study Japanese and was later permitted to reside in The by intercultural experiences – Australia’s history of colonisation, (Sydney: Murdoch Books, 2009), 261-263. Hague, and to visit the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Returning to migration and its geographic proximity to the Asia-Pacific creates 2 Pierre Ryckmans, ‘An Amateur Artist,’ in Fairweather, ed. Murray Bail (Queensland: Art & Australia Books in association with the Queensland Art Gallery, 1994), London after the War, he studied at the Slade and from 1925 worked these basic conditions. But how well does the narrative of art (or 15-23. under the patronage of a former Tory MP, G. Leverton Harris. It was the narrative of nation) account for this, and how centrally located 3 Biographical details are taken from Bail, Fairweather. during this period, apparently troubled and restless, that Fairweather is the intercultural experience? Ian Fairweather was an outsider 4 Bail, Fairweather, 28. produced Smiling Girl (1926), a rare early work from the Janet but simultaneously enmeshed within the story of Australian art. As Holmes à Court Collection, and the chronological starting point of an artist, he moved frequently, was observant and deeply affected 5 Tintin Wulia’s Nous ne notons pas les fluers, has had a number of different forms and developments in cities of significant local histories: Patna, India; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kwangju, South Korea and Fort Ruigenhoek, the Netherlands. Each iteration is brief and responds to a local issue and particular context of the city in this exhibition. This tonal painting points to future works in its subtle by different kinds of cultures, was suspicious of nationalisms and which it was created. rendering of a faintly smiling girl. shunned the formalities and order of polite society. Fairweather 6 “Drawings and Correspondence”, Tom Nicholson Website, accessed February 26, 2013, http://www.tomn.net/projects/2011_01.htm sought influences beyond Britain, and America: in the Fairweather arrived in China in 1929 and took up residence in geography of Asia and the Pacific and the non-European cultures 7 Aaron Seeto, ‘Interview with Newell Harry,’ in News from Islands, ed. Claire Armstrong (Campbelltown Arts Centre, 2007), 32. , in an apartment above a brothel overlooking Soochow situated in these areas. His paintings, which have an informed respect 8 In 1953, Fairweather sought to escape the social confines of Darwin and Australia to visit a friend in Timor. He built a raft from driftwood and available materials, Creek, the setting of many paintings in the exhibition. A work such as of calligraphy – its aesthetic relationship to language and abstraction and floated to Indonesian Timor. This escape from Darwin paradoxically saw him return to London through the intervention of the British, who assisted after he was deported by the Indonesian authorities to Singapore.