100th birthday cheer for artist
The opening of Melbourne artist Erwin Fabian’s latest exhibition of recent sculptures took on extra significance as it marked his 100th birthday as well as 50 years since his first exhibition.
FOR the past 50 years, artist Erwin Fabian has been exhibiting his sculptures in galleries in Melbourne and Sydney, but his latest exhibition which opened on November 6 has extra significance – the opening was on his 100th birthday.
The Berlin-born artist who came to Australia in 1940 as a Dunera Boy is excited about his new exhibition of steel, bronze and plastic sculptures at the Australian Galleries in the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood.
“It’s great to have the exhibition opening on my birthday,” Fabian told The AJN while checking on the final installation of a dozen works in the exhibition, titled Recent Sculpture.
Fabian works in his North Melbourne studio three days a week, often spending up to six hours a day there, working with his assistant Emil as he turns scrap metal into works of art.
Most of the sculptures in this exhibition were created this year, with the largest – titled Year – almost two metres high and weighing about 300 kilograms.
“I have used a lot of scrap metal for these works and my supply is getting a bit low,” he said.
Fabian is also celebrating another milestone – it is 50 years since he held his first exhibition of sculptures at the Hungry Horse Gallery in Sydney in 1965.
Fabian was born in Berlin in 1915, the son of Max, a painter who died in 1926. He trained at the School of Art and Craft in Berlin before settling in London in 1938 where he studied at the London Polytechnic.
In 1940 he was sent to Australia as an enemy alien aboard the transport ship Dunera and was interned in Hay, Orange and Tatura until 1945.
“When I was at the camps I did a lot of drawing,” recalls Fabian.
Several of his drawings from the period of internment are currently on display in the National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition Lurid Beauty: Australian Surrealism and its Echoes, which opened last month in Melbourne.
After World War II Fabian worked as a designer and in 1949 he returned to London, where he worked as a graphic designer and lectured at the London School of Printing before permanently basing himself in Melbourne in 1962.
Over the years Fabian has held many exhibitions in Melbourne and Sydney, and in 2000 he held a major retrospective exhibition in Berlin’s Stadtmuseum.
His work is featured in many Australian galleries including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery and the Australian War Museum.
Recent Sculpture is at the Australian Galleries, 28 Derby Street, Collingwood until November 22. Enquiries: www.australiangalleries.com.au.
REPORT by Danny Gocs
comments