David Larwill

David Larwill (1956–2011) was an Australian artist recognisable by his distinctive and exuberant style based on bold colour, stylised figures and simplified form.

Although best known as a figurative expressionist painter, Larwill was also a draughtsman and printmaker of note.

He produced many drawings, watercolours, ceramics and sculptures as well as etchings, lithographs and screenprints.

In a career that stretched over 30 years, Larwill held over 25 solo exhibitions and participated in scores of group shows.

David Larwill was born in the Victorian city of Ballarat and spent his early life on family-owned farms.

In the 1960s, Larwill moved to his grandmother's house at Mt Martha, on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula.

He attended Mornington High School (finishing in 1973) and later Frankston Technical College (1974–75), where he studied photography, painting and sculpture.

The following year, Larwill started studying ceramics at Prahran College of Advanced Education but dropped out of the course after three months, and worked as a labourer at a steel mill in nearby Hastings.

He then moved to Noosa in Queensland, to live in a girlfriend's parents' villa, and left Australia to travel throughout Europe and North America for 18 months.

Larwill returned to Melbourne in 1979 and moved into a St Kilda flat with art students Peter Ferguson and Wayne Eager.

He enrolled at Preston Institute of Technology, where he studied for a year under Peter Booth, Peter D. Cole, Rod Bishop, Dale Hickey, Mirka Mora and John Dunkley-Smith.

Larwill attended a 1979 exhibition of Booth's work at Pinacotheca Gallery, Richmond, Victoria, which consisted of large narrative paintings depicting the end of the world.

Larwill was intrigued by what could be achieved through paint, commenting: "You could do ugly scenes but the overall effect is one of beauty".

Internationally, the work of French artist Jean Dubuffet and the CoBrA group were also important influences on Larwill’s art; in particular, its revival of expressionism and interest in Outsider art.

Larwill also admired the New York street art of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and had a growing appreciation of Aboriginal art from first-hand contact and personal friendships, most notably with the celebrated Australian painter Ginger Riley Munduwalawala.

Larwill met fellow student Karan Hayman at this time, and they, along with many others, established Roar Studios in 1981.

The Department Head, Betty Churcher (later Director of the National Gallery of Australia), advised him: "You don't need to come here ... Why don't you stay in your studio and paint and exhibit?"

Larwill followed her advice.

The contemporary Australian painter, Peter Booth, had a profound impact upon the development of Larwill's early painting style.

Disillusionment with art school experiences and the difficulties of breaking into the commercial gallery scene led to the establishment of Roar Studios, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in 1982.

The group aimed to counteract perceived biases in the local art community against women, young people and ethnic minorities.

David Larwill’s affable larrikinism and his powerful style attracted young emerging Melbourne artists who shared a similar desire to show their work.

The core original founding group of the ROAR Studio collective included Larwill, Sarah Faulkner, Mark Howson, Karan Hayman, Mark Schaller, Ann Howie, Daniel Kogan, Peter Ferguson, Wayne Eager, Pasquale Giardino, Richard Birmingham, Michael Nicholls, Stephen McCarthy, Maggie MacNamara, Andrew Ferguson, Russell Cook, Glenda Wisemen, Julie Rosewarne and more.

ROAR opening nights became well known for their salubrious atmosphere and late nights.

The style of the ROAR artists was eclectic and they openly acknowledged their debt to a previous generation of Melbourne figurative expressionist painters including John Perceval, Danila Vassilieff and early Sidney Nolan.

ROAR Studios Opening Exhibition premiered in June 1982.

Larwill showed two paintings.

A successful solo exhibition held there the following year.

While he continued to exhibit with ROAR, Larwill soon attracted the interest and attention of a number of well-known commercial dealers and galleries.

In his comment on ROAR's ten-year anniversary exhibition, critic Robert Rooney commented that: "ROAR grew out of an impatience with rather than complete opposition to the existing commercial gallery system, a system into which early ROAR recruits would eventually be absorbed".

In 1983 Larwill was invited to show with the United Artists Gallery, St Kilda.

This gallery included respected mid-career artists such as Mike Brown, Asher Bilu and Dale Hickey.

A second Larwill painting Ash Wednesday, 1983, was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria.

Over the rest of the decade Larwill's work was increasingly shown in important group and prize exhibitions throughout Australia.

This included: Vox Pop: Into the Eighties (National Gallery of Victoria, 1984), The Hugh Williamson Prize (Ballarat Fine Art Gallery, 1986) and A new generation 1983–88: Philip Morris Arts Grant Purchases (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 1988).

Larwill had extended stays in Central Australia (1990 and 1991) where he spent time working with local artists and conducting workshops.

During his first trip to New York in 1992 the tags and graffiti he found in subways and on the streets became an important influence.

He also saw the major retrospective exhibition of the American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art.

Larwill's artist-friend David Thomas remarked: ‘Larwill was much influenced by his skeletal images, use of tribal figures, surface writing and his ability to fill his canvas from edge to edge’.

Larwill also reacquainted himself with Pablo Picasso’s African-inspired masks and sculptures.