Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters

(Hardback)

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Description

When he died in 1974 after a long period of self-imposed austerity and improvisation on Bribie Island, Queensland, Ian Fairweather was at the apex of his fame. He had been called our greatest painter, and his works were keenly sought by galleries, collectors and artists.

Born in 1891 in Scotland, Fairweather had lived a peripatetic life, forever seeking the right place to settle. He was a prodigious and idiosyncratic letter writerwryly documenting for friends and family members his travels, his struggles with his painting and Chinese translations, and the changing conditions on Bribie, as well as commenting on literature and world affairs.

Seven hundred of the painters letters are known to be in existence, and in their selection Claire Roberts and John Thompson have created the definitive volume of Fairweathers correspondence: the closest thing to an autobiography of one of Australias most important and enduring artists.

Reviews

Fairweathers heroic task as an artist, and lonely abnormal individual, was to keep the worldof place, weather, family, his dealers, and a few fellow artists who were friendsboth within reach and at a manageable distance. Scrupulously edited, the letters in which he did this, with all their paranoid anxieties, and grumps and prejudices, are both comic and engagingly human. Meanwhile the works are always quietly behind him in the dark. * David Malouf *
A gorgeous book with plenty of photos and reproductions of Fairweathers worksIt helps paint a fuller picture of the man than weve ever had before. * Courier Mail *
Fairweathers letterscapture the intense interior life of a man devoted to his art. * Age *
Letters from [Ian Fairweathers] Bribie Island retreat, with their total concentration on the essential act of painting, are quirky, opinionated, dedicated. Ian Fairweather: A Life in Letters is superbly edited by Claire Roberts and John Thompson, and generously produced. * Brenda Niall, ABR *
Essential to any understanding of Fairweather is the work of the letters editorsA Life in Letters is a beautiful object.' * Sydney Review of Books *
A book that, like Fairweathers paintings, generates thought and even walking so that you can taste it, put it down, go off and come back. * Garland *
A consummate editorial achievement. * Burlington *
A handsome editionScrupulously editedEngrossing and beautifully made. * Art Monthly Australasia *

Author Bio

Claire Roberts is an associate professor in art history and an ARC Future Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and has published widely on Chinese art and visual culture, and curated numerous exhibitions.