Australian Pioneers Of Abstract Art: Ian Fairweather
Abstract art has proven to be the most enduring of all modern art forms. Its objective is to give the viewer a completely unique and personal experience as it is viewed differently by each individual depending on their mood and personality. Every person interprets the non-delineative shapes and colours differently, ascribing their own meanings to them. This groundbreaking movement away from the realism that dominated earlier art forms began in the early 1900s, and now forms the foundation of today's art world.
Australia, perhaps because of its lonely antipodal position on the globe and its singular ecology and harshly beautiful environments, has proven to be fertile ground for the emergence of pioneers in the world of abstract art, producing a prodigious number of luminaries in the field.
Although a Scotsman by birth, Ian Fairweather became one of Australia's dearest artists during the course of his vivid career. Fairweather was born on the 29th of September 1891 in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire, Scotland. He attended Victoria College in Jersey, London, and studied in Champéry, Switzerland before graduating from British Army officer training school in Belfast at the rank of second lieutenant. Serving in World War I, the Germans captured him in France at the Battle of Mons and he spent the next four years in prisoner-of-war camps. During his capture he was allowed to study drawing and the Japanese language, and provided illustrations for many POW magazines. He was often placed in solitary confinement as punishment for his repeated escape attempts.
After the war he attended the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, and was tutored privately by van Mastenbroek. He attended the School of Oriental Studies in 1921 to study Japanese, and in 1920 through 1924 he attended the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art in London after which he went wandering through Canada, Shanghai, Bali, Colombo, and Australia. He painted wherever he went, and mailed his work to galleries. In 1934 in Melbourne, he joined other artists living at Darebin Bridge House, and began a mural for the Menzies Hotel. From there he went on to travel again, having many adventures around Asia, which greatly influenced his artistic work.
Fairweather eventually returned to his adopted home of Australia where his painting Monastery was acquired by the National Gallery of Australia, and described by critics as a masterpiece. Fellow Australian artist James Gleeson said, "He has fashioned an extraordinarily fascinating hybrid from the pictorial traditions of Europe and the calligraphy of China...." He was one of the few Australian painters to be influenced by Oceanian art. His style was described as "a paragon of sophisticated clumsiness". Fairweather, usually living rough in his wanderings, often worked with cheap materials like cardboard or newspaper, and used poor-quality paints, so unfortunately, many of his works were lost or damaged.
Fairweather died in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on the 20th May 1974, aged 82. He is remembered as a beloved adopted son of Australia and one of her most courageous and groundbreaking artists.
