The Art and Life of Weaver Hawkins

Some of the most individual and symbolic paintings ever produced in Australia were those of Harold Frederick Weaver Hawkins (1893-1977). English-born, Hawkins arrived in Australia in 1935 knowing no-one, and with a background very different to that of his contemporaries. And yet until his death in 1977 he remained a unique and stimulating artistic influence on Australian art, a fact which has been increasingly recognised.
Disabled by war injuries but persistent in pursuit of his creativity, Hawkins studied at the Westminster School of Art and was a close friend of the English painters David Jones and Frank Medworth. Hawkins exhibited etchings and watercolours in London prior to living in both France and Malta and then emigrating to Australia.
With its stylised abstractions, hard and stirring colours and dramatic accents of light and movement, Hawkins' work was initially misunderstood in Australia although he gained unstinting acclaim for his lectures on art. Stylistically, Hawkins was out of step with the Sydney 'Charm School' and far removed from the abstract expressionists but his work clearly had its own voice. Strong, vigorous and disciplined, Hawkins' paintings were very much concerned with what the artist considered to be a generalised 'religion of mankind', and his work focused on 'fighting for the humanising values of society'. This authoritative book is a tribute to his art and vision.