Head
Ian FAIRWEATHER: artist
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For many years Fairweather was a nomadic artist, travelling and working across the globe. From 1945-1947 he lived at the in Melbourne with fellow artist Lina Bryans and was part of an artistic community promoting a modern approach to creativity.
Access to this artistic community gave Fairweather intellectual stimulation, and on a personal level Bryans was a significant early patron, buying paintings and providing him with somewhere to live.
This small sculpture was moulded by Fairweather in 1946 and is the only sculpture he ever made. The textured surface retains the marks of the artist’s hands as he manipulated the clay into the desired shape. Bryans had it cast in bronze forty years later, twelve years after the artist’s death. The inspiration for this work came from a drawing Fairweather had made in 1933 of a young Balinese woman. The resulting sculpture is not so much an illustration of the drawing as an interpretation of it. By making the figure fold in upon itself, conveying a sense of the space contained within the form/figure, Fairweather has transformed the lines and brushstrokes of the two-dimensional drawing into a solid form.
Access to this artistic community gave Fairweather intellectual stimulation, and on a personal level Bryans was a significant early patron, buying paintings and providing him with somewhere to live.
This small sculpture was moulded by Fairweather in 1946 and is the only sculpture he ever made. The textured surface retains the marks of the artist’s hands as he manipulated the clay into the desired shape. Bryans had it cast in bronze forty years later, twelve years after the artist’s death. The inspiration for this work came from a drawing Fairweather had made in 1933 of a young Balinese woman. The resulting sculpture is not so much an illustration of the drawing as an interpretation of it. By making the figure fold in upon itself, conveying a sense of the space contained within the form/figure, Fairweather has transformed the lines and brushstrokes of the two-dimensional drawing into a solid form.
Title
Head
Artist/Maker and role
Ian FAIRWEATHER: artist
Date
1946 {cast 1986}
Medium
bronze
Measurements
40 x 17 x 12.8 cm
Production place
Melbourne, Victoria
Credit line
Gift of Mrs Lina Bryans, 1992
The State Art Collection, The Art Gallery of Western Australia
Accession number
1992/0009