Today Artworks is replaying a program from May on Erwin Fabian – possibly the oldest surviving Dunera boy who continues to sculpt every day in his studio in North Melbourne. I have posted on him a few times before. I teed up an oral history project to record Erwin’s recollections of his life – I think it was the National Library. Anyway it would have been a fantastic to get his recollections because apart from their inherent interest – he’s a very thoughtful man – it would also have helped add to the record of Australia’s intellectual and artistic history – Erwin was not quite a father figure, but someone to whom Australia’s greatest artists of the 1950s – particularly Boyd and Perceval looked up to as a little older than them (I think) and exotic having turned up from Europe.
In any event as you may have guessed from my tone, the project didn’t go ahead. Erwin refused as he thought it too vainglorious. I tried quite hard but he wasn’t interested. So it’s good that he agreed to do this program which remains downloadable – the ABC seems to be quietly ditching the silly policy it once had of removing podcasts from its site as they became more than four programs old.
