Without doubt the most gifted figure draughtsman in Australian art, Donald Friend was also one of its most controversial and exciting characters. Born in 1915 in Sydney, where he died 74 years later, Donald Friend lived and worked in many different parts of the world during his career. His extraordinary life and talent are currently being celebrated in a major retrospective exhibition mounted by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

From the time that he left school in 1931, jumping 'rattler trains' to Queensland where he lived with the islanders of Torres Strait, Donald Friend sought an exotic life style outside the context of his anglo-saxonAustralian background. After studying in London he went to Nigeria in 1938 and became an advisor to the Ogoga of Ikerre. He was an official war artist in 1945 and served in Labuan, Borneo and Morotai. He lived in Italy, Sri Lanka and, for a long period between 1966 and 1980, in Bali where his fame as an expatriate was at its height.

Continuing difficulties with gaining visa extensions, and ailing health which necessitated more frequent medical treatment, brought about his permanent return to Australia in 1980. The last decade of Donald Friend's life, though fraught with sickness and a growing sense of isolation and neglect, saw no slackening of his output. His final period indeed was a testament to the artist's great tenacity. Not even a series of strokes in 1987 which debilitated his drawing and writing hand - his left hand - seemed to impede his creative drive.

Despite his fame as a traveller and expatriate however, Donald Friend established a firm place in the story of 20th century art on Australian soil, particularly through his work during the Second World War, his association with the Merioola group in Sydney, his attachment to Hill End in Western New South Wales where he lived and painted for extended periods, his long and close friendship with Russell Drysdale, and through that last decade in Australia.

Donald Friend's splendid figure draughtsmanship, his brilliant flair for decoration, his great ability as an illustrator, and his pungently witty writing have given Australian art one of its richest legacies. We will continue to discover that legacy for a long time to come.

Barry Pearce

Senior Curator N.S.W. Art Gallery