Donald Friend

Donald Stuart Leslie Friend (6 February 1915 16 Au- Friend was well known for studies of the young male
gust 1989) was an Australian artist, writer and diarist.[1] nude,[6] as well as his wit.[7] His facility as a draughtsman may have contributed to the undervaluing of his
work, which art scholar Lou Klepac said always looked
too easy decorative, owing and natural. In the mid1 Early life
1960s, Robert Hughes described him as one of the
two nest draughtsmen of the nude in Australia, and
Born in Sydney, precociously talented both as an artist noted his humanism and lack of sentimentality, while
and a writer, Friend grew up in the artistic circle of his still maintaining that he was not a major artist. Barry
bohemian mother. He studied with Sydney Long (1931) Pearce, however, writing in the study which accompanied
and Dattilo Rubbo (19341935), and later in London Friends posthumous retrospective at the Art Gallery of
(19361937) at the Westminster School of Art with Mark New South Wales in 1990, said that Hughes judgement
Gertler and Bernard Meninsky. During World War II he seemed harsh and called for a re-evaluation of Friend as
served as a gunner with the AIF, and while stationed at an artist whose contribution to the richness of Australian
Albury began an important friendship with Russell Drys- art is due for much greater recognition.
dale which was to culminate in their joint discovery of
Friend also published a number of illustrated books, alHill End, a quasi-abandoned gold mining village near
most all in limited editions, which displayed the same
Bathurst, New South Wales, which was to become somewit and sensuality that informs much of his art. In 2001
thing of an artists colony in the 1950s. He also served as
[2] the National Library of Australia began publishing the
an ocial war artist in Labuan and Balikpapan in 1945.
journals that Friend had kept since he was 14, and which
After the war he lived for a time in the Sydney mansionchronicled in half a million words a life peopled with such
boarding house Merioola, exhibiting with the so-called
artists as Drysdale, Margaret Olley, Jerey Smart, Brett
Merioola Group.
Whiteley and others.
Much of Friends life and career were spent outside Australia, in places as diverse as Nigeria (late 1930s, where
he served as nancial advisor to the Ogoga of Ikerre),
Italy (several visits in the 1950s), Sri Lanka (late 1950s 3 Diaries
early 1960s, from whence dates this view of the city of
Colombo[3] ), and Bali from 1968 until his nal return to Friends diaries were published posthumously from
Sydney in 1980.
20012006 by the National Library of Australia[8] in four
volumes. Volume 4 dealt in part with Friends time in
Bali in the 1960s and '70s; publicity claimed this volume conrms Friends quicksilver creative brilliance and
2 Career
extraordinary insight. He is perhaps Australias most important twentieth-century diarist.[9]
Friends critical reputation in the 1940s equalled those of
Following the publication of Volume 4, accusations were
William Dobell and Russell Drysdale, but by the time of
made that the publishers had not been granted permishis death it had sunk so low that his work was totally absion to publicly name some of Friends sexual partsent from the 1988 Australian Bicentennial exhibition, a
ners, who were minors at the time of their encounshow meant to include every artist of importance since
ters with Friend.[10] There were also accusations that
white settlement.
Friends paedophilia had been whitewashed by Australian
Friend made no attempt to disguise the homoeroticism art scholars.[10][11][12][13]
which underlay much of his work,[4] despite winning
the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 1955. Nor did he
mince words about his sexual preferences, depicting himself as a middle-aged pederast whos going to seed in 4 Major collections
his journal.[5] His relationships consisted in large part of
a series of aairs with adolescent boys, some of whom
Holmes Court Collection[14]
became his lifelong friends, particularly Attilio Guarracino.
National Gallery of Australia
1

See also
Visual arts of Australia
Arthur Benjamin

Bibliography
Donald Friend, Robert Hughes, Edwards and Shaw,
Sydney, 1965
Donald Friend: Australian War Artist 1945, Gavin
Fry and Colleen Fry, Currey O'Neill, Melbourne,
1982
Donald Friend 19151989 Retrospective, Barry
Pearce, 1990
The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 1, Ed. Anne
Gray, 2001, ISBN 0-642-10738-6

REFERENCES

8 References
[1] Australian Dictionary of Biography
[2] Australian War Memorial collection
[3] http://www.defonseka.com/images/Friend_Colombo.
jpg
[4] Donald Friend, Paintings for sale at Savill Galleries by
this great Australian artist. Savill.com.au. 19 March
2005. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
[5] The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume Three, edited by
Paul Hetherington. National Library of Australia, 2005
[6] Donald Friend Three Nudes.
Art-galleriesschubert.com.au. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
[7] Donald Friend Mrs Brodie and Little Angus. Artgalleries-schubert.com.au. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
[8] The Donald Friend Diaries. Nla.gov.au. 21 March
2002. Retrieved 18 October 2011.
[9] NLA Bookshop Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 4"".
Shop.nla.gov.au. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 2, Ed. Paul

Hetherington, 2003, ISBN 978-0-642-10765-7

[10] ABC Radio National, The Law Report Identifying victims of child sexual assault and abuse"". Australia: ABC.
Retrieved 18 October 2011.

The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 3, Ed. Paul

Hetherington, 2005, ISBN 978-0-642-27602-5

[11] The Age Photos 'in realm of porn' under state laws"".
The Age. Australia. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

The Diaries of Donald Friend, Volume 4, Ed. Paul

Hetherington, 2006, ISBN 978-0-642-27644-5

[12] ABC Radio National, Late Night Live Donald Friend"".

Abc.gov.au. 12 August 2009. Retrieved 18 October 2011.

The Donald Friend Diaries, Ed. Ian Britain, 2010,

ISBN 978-1-921656-70-5

[13] Sorensen, Rosemary (26 November 2008). The Australian Artists fail to admit Friend was a pedophile, says
lmmaker"". Theaustralian.news.com.au. Retrieved 18
October 2011.

The Lives of Donald Friend: Towards a Biography

of an Australian Artist in an International Social Setting, Ian Britain, Meanjin, Melbourne MarchMay
2008

[14] The Holmes Court Collection. Holmes Court

Gallery. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 13 January 2011.

External links
Biography
Works 1
Works 2
Works 3
Symposium papers
Donald Friend exhibition
Donal Friend at Australian Art

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Donald Friend Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald%20Friend?oldid=590717907 Contributors: JackofOz, Haiduc, Discospinster, Bender235, Design, Gaius Cornelius, Kerry Raymond, 1717, Closedmouth, SmackBot, PiCo, D C McJonathan, Jprg1966, Sadads,
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