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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 50| April 2001


An Irrepressible Spirit

Donald Friend's drawing

Donald Friend (1915–1989)
[A Charming, Half-dead, Half-forgotten Old Village]
Donald Friend Diaries
Manuscript Collection MS 5959/46

 

On the 23 and 24 February over 100 people gathered at the National Library to discuss and trace the fascinating life of Australian artist Donald Friend at the conference ‘An Inventive Magic: Donald Friend and his Diaries’. The conference audience was captivated by stories of Friend’s time in Sydney and Hill End, his travels to Africa, Italy and Ceylon, and his extended years of living in Bali. Both Friend’s drawings and paintings were explored, as well as his sculpture. Perhaps most interestingly the conference examined Donald Friend’s personal writings, particularly those in his diaries begun as a teenager.

The 44 illustrated diaries of Donald Friend are held by the National Library of Australia and formed the foundation for convening the conference. Recently the Library embarked on an ambitious publishing project of these diaries, announcing their publication in four edited volumes. The first of these volumes is due in October 2001. A selection of the drawings from the diaries has recently been published by the Library in the book The Genius of Donald Friend: Drawings from the Diaries 1942–1989, selected and introduced by Lou Klepac.

Speakers at the conference included Anna Gray, Sasha Grishin, John McDonald, Barry Pearce, Lou Klepac, Gavin Wilson, Ian Stocks, Christine France, Robin Wallace-Crabbe, John Thompson, Paul Hetherington, Adrian Vickers, John Moyle and Jane Oehr.

Barry Pearce, Head Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, presented the keynote address on the topic ‘Interrupted Genius: Donald Friend as Artist’. In his paper he declared:

In a forest of Eucalypts he was a rampant vine, curling through the spaces, spicing the greys and dull greens with his perfumed colour … It was a burst of exuberance against the monotony of being ordinary.

Previously he had described Donald Friend to the audience as a masked troubadour, stating:

He was only ever completely happy when drawing and painting … He was like a troubadour who needed to sing; each day, every day. The curious thing is that when I think of his picaresque-ness, his performance as a draughtsman painter with ebullience, and wit, and confidence, exciting us with fizzing line and evanescent vitality, making us laugh with his wicked observations, I am not quite sure how close we are allowed to come to the artist’s soul. He was a troubadour with a mask.

Curator and publisher Lou Klepac concluded in his paper ‘The Drawings of Donald Friend’ that:

As a draughtsman Donald stands somewhere between Goya and Rowlandson. He wrote so well and drew equally well, but his drawings always seem to look best near writing … the one sustained effort, to which he remained loyal all his life and into which he poured the best of his two gifts—the Diaries—is probably his greatest achievement.

Many other topics were explored including Jeffrey Smart’s biography by John McDonald, and John Olsen’s and John Wolseley’s journals by Sasha Grishin. Donald Friend’s own artist books were described by John Thompson, as well as the processes involved in producing artist’s books by Robin Wallace-Crabbe. Overall, conference-attendees were treated to an exploration of one man’s life, placed in the context of Australian art and history, recorded in his diaries and friendships, and most importantly borne out in his beautiful drawings and enduring spirit and personality.
—Heather Clark

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Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au

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