Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1915 Berlin, Germany

Died: 2020 Melbourne, Australia

Year of Migration to the UK: 1938

Biography

Graphic artist and sculptor Erwin Fabian was born into a Jewish family in Berlin, Germany, in 1915, the son of painter Max Fabian (1873–1926) and Else Fabian, his former student. As a teenager Fabian was apprenticed as a house painter and sign-writer, but, being of Jewish heritage, was dismissed from his job under Nazi racial laws, which also prevented him from entering the Berlin Academy of Arts where his father had studied. His father died when Fabian was ten and in 1936 he helped to prepare a memorial exhibition of his work at the short-lived Jewish Museum in Berlin.

Fabian fled Nazi Germany in 1938, joining his sister in England; their mother followed shortly after, bringing her husband's works with her (some of which are held in the British Museum collection). Fabian enrolled at the London Polytechnic where he met a number of fellow German-speaking refugees. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, in mid-1940 he was detained as a so-called 'enemy alien' at Huyton Camp in Liverpool, before being sent to Australia aboard the infamous Dunera troopship alongside other 2,700 German-speaking refugees and Nazi prisoners of war. Fabian was interned variously at Hay Camp, then at Orange, New South Wales, and at Tatura, Victoria. With the encouragement of a fellow internee, surrealist artist Hein Heckroth (1901–1970), Fabian produced scenes of daily life in Hay camp in monochrome wash, pencil, and watercolour. He also began making monotypes which, without the immediacy of the watercolours, conveyed the psychological impact of internment using an expressionist and surreal visual language. During his time at Hay Fabian also befriended the painter Klaus Friedeberger (1922-2019), who settled in England after the war. Following his release in 1942, Fabian served with the Australian Army in Tocumwal, on the New South Wales–Victoria state border. In 1945 he was transferred to Army Education where he designed covers and illustrations for the fortnightly Current Affairs Bulletin. A travelling exhibition of soldiers' art arranged by the army and the Red Cross included a monotype, which was bought by the National Gallery of Victoria – the first of Fabian's works to be acquired by a public collection. During his time stationed in Melbourne, Fabian also became friends with the noted Australian painter Sidney Nolan (1917–1992). In 1950 Fabian returned to London where he worked for the next twelve years as a graphic designer. His 1955 poster for the Financial Times, depicting the city-gent broadsheet reader as an industrial chimney, showed his graphic wit and ingenuity, and was later singled out by fellow émigré, Ernst Gombrich (1909–2001) in his book Art and Illusion (1968). From the late 1950s, Fabian produced a number of book covers for Penguin, including Franz Kafka's The Castle for the Penguin Modern Classics series in 1957, for which he contributed a monotype of a haunting maze-like structure; it was apparently the first time in publishing that a monotype had been used for a book cover. During his time in London Fabian also worked for advertising agencies, producing graphic designs for P&O and Shell, and lectured in Graphic Design at the London School of Printing and Graphic Arts.

Fabian returned to Australia in 1962, working primarily in sculpture. His first exhibition of sculptures composed from pieces of discarded farm machinery was held at the Hungry Horse Gallery in Sydney in 1965, followed by a second show at the Kim Bonython Gallery, Sydney in 1973. Sculpture created from metal cast-offs remained a primary concern for the rest of his career, with regular exhibitions held at Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney and Australian Galleries, Melbourne. Fabian's work has also been included in group exhibitions in Australia and the UK, such as Australian Artists of Fame and Promise, New South Wales House, London WC2 (1979), the Australian Sculpture Triennial in 1981 and The Europeans: Émigré Artists in Australia at the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (1997). Fabian died in January 2020, at the age of 104, in Melbourne. Fabian's works are held in multiple public collections, including the National Gallery; Art Gallery of New South Wales; Art Gallery of Victoria, the High Court and the Australian War Memorial, as well the British Museum, London. In 2000 the Berlin Stadtmuseum brought together the remaining works of Max Fabian and the art of his son for a joint exhibition entitled Max und Erwin Fabian: Berlin – London – Melbourne.

Related books

Migration and the Refugee: The Art of Erwin Fabian (Tatura: Tatura Museum, 2019)
Peter W. Thompson, Ken Scarlett, Anna-Carola Krausse and Dominik Bartmann, Erwin Fabian: Die lange Reise eines Bildhauers [Journey of a Sculptor] (Berlin: Künstler Bei Wu, 2016)
Sasha Grishin ed., Erwin Fabian: Recent Sculptures & Earlier Monotypes (Sydney: Australian Galleries, 2013)
Erwin Fabian: Recent Sculpture (Sydney: Australian Galleries, 2009)
Steve Hare, Penguin by Illustrators (London: Penguin Collectors Society, 2009)
Ken Scarlett ed., Erwin Fabian: A Survey 1977–2004 and Current Works 2005–2006 (Sydney: Australian Galleries, 2006)
Kirsty Grant and Cathy Leahy eds., On Paper: Australian Prints and Drawings in the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2003)
Stephen Coppel, 'Erwin Fabian: The Sculptor's Journey', in Dominik Bartmann ed., 'Max und Erwin Fabian: Berlin-London-Melbourne' (Berlin: Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin, 2000) pp. 141-146
Magdalene Keaney, 'Images of Displacement: Art from the Internment Camps', in Roger Butler ed., The Europeans: Émigré Artists in Australia 1930–1960 (Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1997) pp. 85-101
Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion (London: Phaidon Press, 1960)

Public collections

Related organisations

London Polytechnic (student)
London School of Printing and Graphic Arts (lecturer)
Penguin Books (freelance designer)

Selected exhibitions

Inside Out: Space and Process: Erwin Fabian & Anne-Marie May, McClelland Sculpture Park + Gallery, Langwarrin (2020)
Migration and the Refugee: The Art of Erwin Fabian, Tatura Irrigation & Wartime Camps Museum, Tatura, Australia (2019)
Recent Sculpture: Celebrating the Artist's 100th Birthday - Erwin Fabian, Australian Galleries, Melbourne (2015)
Recent Sculpture, Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney (2015)
Erwin Fabian: Recent Sculptures & Earlier Monotypes, Australian Galleries, Melbourne (2013)
Recent Sculpture and Earlier Monotypes, Australian Galleries, Melbourne (2011)
Out of Australia: Prints and Drawings from Sidney Nolan to Rover Thomas, British Museum, London (2011)
Erwin Fabian: Recent Sculpture, Australian Galleries, Melbourne (2009)
A Survey 1977–2004, McClelland Gallery + Sculpture Park, Langwarrin (2006)
Current Works 2005–2006, Australian Galleries, Melbourne (2006)
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney (2005 and 2002)
Max und Erwin Fabian: Berlin – London – Melbourne, Stadtmuseum Berlin (2000)
The Europeans: Émigré Artists in Australia, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra (1997)
Australian Galleries, Melbourne (1996)
Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney (1998, 1996, 1987, 1985, 1980)
Realities Gallery, Melbourne (1989 and 1984)
Australian Artists of Fame and Promise, New South Wales House,66 Strand, WC2 (1979)
First Australian Sculpture Triennial, Melbourne (1981)
Warehouse Gallery, Melbourne (1977)
Kim Bonython Gallery, Sydney (1973)
Clytie Jessop Gallery, London (1968)
Bear Lane Gallery, Oxford (1968)
Hungry Horse Gallery, Sydney (1965)

Ben Uri archive

Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Erwin Fabian]