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Stuart MacFarlane is a leading Australian figurative artist
born in Adelaide in 1953. His early artistic influences were drawn from South
Australia, notably from his secondary school art teacher David Dridan, the Art
Gallery of South Australia collections, and exhibitions at the Bonython Gallery
in Adelaide, which showed major figurative artists such as Sid Nolan, David
Boyd, Charles Blackman and Robert Dickerson.
Both his artistic career – and a life of extensive travel - began early. At the
age of sixteen, MacFarlane enrolled at the South Australian School of Art where
he studied under David Dallwitz. Graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts
(Painting) in 1974, he left Australia the following year for New York where he
settled for the next eight years. In New York, he took a Bachelor of Fine Arts
(Painting) from the School of Visual Arts in 1977 and met John Button, a
teacher there, who became his mentor. Button was a champion of the form of
realism most commonly associated with such New York School artists as Fairfield
Porter, Jane Freillicher, Alex Katz and Janet Fish (who also taught at the
School of Visual Arts).
Through Button, MacFarlane was introduced to Janet Fish, Chuck Close, and Alex Katz. He was also offered residencies at the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Maine, the Fine Arts Work Centre in Provincetown, Massachusetts and the MacDowell Colony, New Hampshire and held three solo exhibitions, notably at the Australian Consulate New York in 1983.
Whilst living in the US, MacFarlane also pursued a career in the music industry
forming a band "Stew Lane and the Untouchables" which performed and
recorded in New York City between 1979 and 1981. During this time, he continued
to paint and also to work in the studios of Janet Fish, Alex Katz and Chuck
Close – all of whom were key influencers on his style*
MacFarlane returned to Australia in 1983, moving to Melbourne the following year for post-graduate studies at the Victorian College of the Arts graduating in 1984. In 1985, he taught at The Gippsland Institute of Advanced Education and in 1986, moved to Darlinghurst, Sydney to paint. Later that year, he was artist-in-residence in the Besozzo Studio, Italy. Back in Australia in 1987, MacFarlane lived and painted in Mornington, Victoria for several months before receiving an initial residency with the Roswell Artist-in-residence program, New Mexico for a year.
Over the next eight years, Stuart MacFarlane was to travel between Melbourne, Sydney, and Roswell, producing one or more solo exhibitions each year. In 1994, he received a residency at The Bemis Centre, Omaha, Nebraska in the US. Back in Australia in 1995, he settled in Queensland where he remained for the next seven years, basing himself in Maryborough, then New Farm and then the Sunshine Coast. The now much-travelled MacFarlane went south to Hobart from 2002 until 2011 before coming back to mainland Australia.
MacFarlane’s work has been described as, "… pared-down 'realism' (with
expressionist touches) combined with a surreality of lighting and perspective.”**
Stylistically he owes much to Alex Katz, and intellectually he was also
influenced by the work and thinking of John Brack whose art he saw at the Art
Gallery of South Australia while growing up in Adelaide.
In his own words, Stewart MacFarlane says his influences include, "…diary entries of my experiences, current situations, physical locations and mind spaces". ***
His favoured subject matter includes stylised locations and the presence of figures - especially nude and semi-nude women; many have a dark and disturbing quality. MacFarlane works with primary colours, straight from the tube, with a broad brush, showing his natural talent for paint application, drawing, colour, texture, and content.
Five decades after commencing his studies and now a professional painter for many decades, Stewart MacFarlane is considered one of Australia's finest, most enigmatic and respected contemporary artists.
His
work is held in major collections both in Australia and internationally
including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of
Victoria, Melbourne; Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; Artbank, Sydney; Alice
Springs Art Foundation, Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New
Mexico, USA; Artbank, Australia; Brisbane City Gallery, Queensland; Curtin
University Gallery, Perth; Griffith University, Brisbane; Latrobe Valley Arts
Centre, Victoria; Lawrence Wilson Gallery, University of Western Australia; Queensland
Art Gallery, Brisbane.
* Apost Cruz artist biography
** Helmridge-Marsillian, Veronique, Stewart MacFarlane, Riddles of Life,
Craftsman House, Sydney, 1996,
pp 29-30
*** Australian Galleries Roylston Street, Sydney, Catalogue, June - July 2013
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