Ian Fairweather Scotland, Britain, Australia, 1891-1974
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About Ian Fairweather
Ian Fairweather was born in Scotland in 1891. He was schooled in Jersey and London, and enlisted in the British Army in 1914. Serving in France, he was captured by the Germans and spent four years in various prisoner of war camps. At the end of the war, Fairweather decided to become an artist full-time, undertaking studies in Chinese calligraphy and oriental art in London and travelling throughout Asia, Europe and Australia. On a visit to Australia in 1932 he was commissioned to paint a mural for the Menzies Hotel. Fairweather spent six months working on the mural for six months, and then travelled to Cairns. Unable to find work in Cairns, he lived with the local Aborigines and from here produced his most critically acclaimed works. A master of design, his work is very much influenced by his contact with the Chinese, Indonesian and Australian Aboriginal art. In 1973, Fairweather’s his fellow artists awarded him the International Co-operation Art Award for his extraordinary contribution to Australian art.
In our database, 394 works by Ian Fairweather are listed as being offered for sale, the earliest in 1967, of which 310 (79%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $1,708,000 for Barbecue sold by Deutscher and Hackett in April 2019. In addition to this sale, a further one work by this artist has been sold for over $1 million. This year one work has been offered for sale. Works by Ian Fairweather are held by the Queensland Art Gallery, Art Gallery of NSW and a further seven major public national galleries (see list below).
Ian Fairweather is listed in the following standard biographical references:
- McCulloch, Alan McCulloch, Susan McCulloch, Emily McCulloch-Childs. The New McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art. 4th Edition, Aus Art Melbourne & The Miegunyah Press, 2006. Page 417
- Campbell, Jean. Australian Watercolour Painters: 1780 to the Present Day. Craftsman House, Sydney, 1989. Page 308
Artists' Resale Royalty
Could the second and subsequent works by this artist sold after June 9, 2010 for over $1,000 be liable for the Artists' Resale Royalty? More info…
Yes, eligible, subject to the artist satisfying the residency test. The artist is alive or has been deceased for less than 70 years. Contact the Copyright Agency for information on the residency test.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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