NEWS DESK
Larrikin artist’s last brush with the stars OBITUARY David Larwill Artist, everyman, rambler 1956-2011 DAVID Larwill became one of the Mornington Peninsula’s favourite sons. An avid sailor, he became known for his beach rambles where he would pick up the flotsam of the sea – everything from discarded thongs to sea-shells – to create multi-textured artworks. Although he became nationally and internationally famous, he would always return to the seashore. He lived in Somers for about 19 years and built a contemporary home that included a huge studio. David’s funeral at Mt Martha on Monday attracted almost 1000 people, many of them flying in from around the country to attend. There were celebrities and dignitaries and plumbers and roofers, footballers, academics, actors, rock musicians and fashion designers and bricklayers – an eclectic array of friends and fans that summed up Dave’s universal appeal. Both as a person and an artist he was an ‘everyman’ type of character, equally at home in a bush pub and a millionaire’s mansion. Larwill, who died last Sunday 19 June following a battle with cancer, was never one for rules. While most people in his condition would retire to hospital, Dave, who loved the bush, wanted one last road trip to the desert outside of Alice Springs. Coercing his friend Ken McGregor into driving him, he made it almost as far as Coober Pedy where he saw the night stars, put his feet in the red sand, retired for the night and passed away. Speaking alongside Dave’s brother, Sam, and his sister, Sarah, and fellow artist and close friend Wayne Eager, McGregor supplied a heartfelt travelogue recounting Dave’s last days alive, eliciting both tears and occasional laughter at the rogue’s last wanderings and his final meal – delighted at having scored the last serve of roast lamb at a country pub, as though it had been kept by fate for his enjoyment.
Icon-oclast: David Larwill two years before he co-founded Roar Studios in Fitzroy. His canvases were populated with stylised human figures and animals, a combination of tribal, abstract and expressionistic images.
Larwill’s approach to his impending demise was typical of his life. If there was alternative to the norm he would find it. In 1981, a year after leaving the Preston Institute of Technology and dismissive of much of the art and art world around him, he teamed up with his mates to establish an alternative gallery where “beer, dogs and paint” rather than “champagne and caviar” were the priority. Thus was Roar Studios born and, despite its anarchic nature, key art world figures such as James Mollison, then director of the Australian National Gallery in Canberra, became besotted. For all of his rough around the edges persona, Larwill could rub shoulders with people from all echelons of society, from the down-and-out to the wealthy and powerful. But he also did not suffer fools gladly and, although
immensely successful, he was utterly dismissive of much of the art world around him, dismissing most critics and curators as charlatans. Charity and social issues were never far from his thoughts and, rather than simply donate the occasional painting to a cause, Larwill went several steps further and in 1995 he teamed up with some mates and founded the hugely successful Artists for Kids Culture Trust to raise funds for underprivileged children. The trust continues to this day. In 1998, at the invitation of the Mirrar traditional owners in Kakadu, he joined artists Peter Walsh, Mark Schaller and I in the country threatened by the existing Ranger and proposed Jabiluka uranium mines. Works inspired by their experiences were later exhibited in Melbourne and the funds raised helped lead to
Kakadu becoming a World Heritage site. In the early 1980s the Melbourne art world drank white wine or, when they were lucky, Moët. But there was a clear-cut dissenter in this habit who, regardless of how exclusive the event, would carry his own slab of Victoria Bitter into the proceedings. This did, of course, on more than one occasion, cause the snobs to raise eyebrows, but Dave didn’t care. He loved his VB. He would heft his slab over a shoulder and walk into the presence of Prime Ministers and Governor Generals, crack a tinnie and say “G’day!” I was lucky enough to meet ‘Larwee’ – as he often referred to himself (everyone had a name: fellow Roar artists Mark Schaller was ‘Sparky’ for his ability to fix things, Wayne Eager was ‘Iggy’, I was simply
‘Crawf’) – at an exclusive cocktail party in 1980. He and I were the only ones drinking beer so conversation seemed inevitable. It transpired we were, at least in theory, on opposite sides of art world aesthetic politics – he was the expressionist, I was perceived as being more supportive of the conceptualists. This didn’t stop us from retiring to a nearby pub and arguing all night long. It also didn’t stop him from inviting me on numerous road trips through Australia’s centre and up to Arnhem Land. The highlight of those trips was always stopping to meet up with various Aboriginal folk he knew, from Kintore and Papunya to Warmun in the Kimberly and Gunbalanya in the Northern Territory where Larwee was always treated as one of their own. Such journeys were part of his source material – his unique stick figures, usually jolly but also often melancholy – took on the personalities of those around him and as such were almost diaristic in content. Dave’s more larrikin tendencies mellowed when, nine years ago, he met Fiona von Menge and fell madly in love. They went on to marry and have two sons, James and Henry. Having struggled as a younger artist, Larwill had found financial and creative success and true happiness. His work resides in numerous national collections including the British Museum; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne; New Parliament House, Canberra; the Queensland Art Gallery; the Australian Football League; Allen Allen & Hemsley, Sydney; World Congress Centre, Melbourne; Western Mining Corporation Collection; the Shell Collection of Contemporary Australian Art; Baillieu Myer; the ICI Collection; Orica, Melbourne; and the Holmes a Court collection. Ashley Crawford is a freelance writer living in Melbourne and the author of a number of books on Australian art. He accompanied David Larwill on numerous trips through the centre and the Top End of Australia.
Shire orders removal of ‘safety’ fence By Mike Hast MORNINGTON Peninsula Shire has ordered a fence around Mt Eliza village’s historic cypress tree to be removed. The fence surrounding the tree and one of two eucalypt trees on public land outside the Safeway supermarket in Mt Eliza Way was erected last Friday but removed on Wednesday morning. The three trees are the centre of a four-year dispute between the developer of a proposed expanded Safeway complex, Blackbrook Pty Ltd, and the Mt Eliza Action Group with the shire council caught in between. The historic cypress is the last of three cypresses that have provided shade in the main street for decades. Blackbrook wants it and the two gums chopped down to enable it to build out over the service road, but this and other elements of the proposal have now gone to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Three arborists’ reports have been commissioned into the health of the cypress – one by Blackbrook says the tree is unsafe and must come down, one or-
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Mornington News 30 June 2011
dered by the shire says the tree has 20 years left in it, and one by MEAG says the tree will last for at least 10 years. It must be the most studied tree on the peninsula. MEAG secretary June Horner says the group has spent $1600 on multiple arborists’ reports. “All three trees are very healthy according to our arborist, Arbor Co,” she told The News on Wednesday morning just before she headed off to the VCAT for a discovery hearing into the Safeway expansion plan. “The cypress is 11 metres tall and has added 3-4 centimetres of new growth recently. The gums are also healthy and are both about 11.5 metres tall.” Mrs Horner said MEAG members and village resident were surprised to see the fence being erected last week. MEAG fired off an email to senior shire planner Peter Bergman asking “why fencing was being erected out the front of Safeway around the cypress tree and one eucalypt tree to the north, which also includes public seating and rest areas”. The email was copied to Mt Eliza Ward councillor Leigh Eustace and
Don’t fence me in: The temporary fence around Mt Eliza’s historic cypress and a eucalypt that was erected last week and removed on Wednesday. Historic tree fence up then down.
director of sustainable environment Stephen Chapple. “We were told it had been done for safety reasons, but both the shire and our arborist say the three trees are safe,” she said. Fearful of Blackbrook cutting down the cypress, residents held a public
vigil by the fence over the weekend until reassured by the shire that it would not be removed. Cr Eustace said a spokesman for Blackbrook’s planners, Network Planning Consultants Pty Ltd, had blamed the building manager for the fence. He said Blackbrook had submitted
amended plans for the proposed Safeway expansion that deleted a proposed restaurant. “There is also an issue about whether Blackbrook can build on the service road but it’s all off to the VCAT to sort out.”