hal holman leaves huge artistic legacy for australia...
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8/26/2016 Hal Holman leaves huge artistic legacy for Australia and Papua New Guinea
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/halholmanleaveshugeartisticlegacyforaustraliaandpapuanewguinea20160704gpy2ue 1/6
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Haldane Sinclair "Hal" Holman was a prodigiously talented artist who
devoted much of his life - and his art - to Papua New Guinea. This was
especially seen in his creation of the iconography of its nationhood,
everything from the national crest and a major contribution in the
design of its flag to postage stamps.
Holman was awarded significant honours by the governments of both
Australia and PNG for his art and sculpture.
Holman grew up in inner Sydney. His mother, Jessie owned the
Phoenix Hotel in Paddington and it was she who encouraged his
nascent artistic instincts. So much so that he never took much of an
interest in schooling.
During those early childhood years he spent more time in Centennial
Park than in the classroom. The family later moved to run the aptly
named Donnybrook Hotel near Lithgow with its brawling bar room
culture. The family's life was unsettled (Holman was packed off to an
orphanage on one occasion when his parents went overseas) before
he finally landed at Sydney Boys High.
HAL HOLMAN 1922 - 2016
Hal Holman leaves huge artistic legacy for Australia andPapua New Guinea
Artist Hal Holman with his busts of former PNG prime ministers. His paintings and drawings are in private
collections and in galleries around the world. Photo: Jacky Ghossein
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8/26/2016 Hal Holman leaves huge artistic legacy for Australia and Papua New Guinea
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he finally landed at Sydney Boys High.
By now old enough to realise he was unsuited to scholarship, he found
a job in a printery which kick started his interest in design – until
1942 when he joined the army.
Of diminutive stature (his comrades in the 2/6 Independent
Commando Squadron nicknamed him "Gidge"), he joined the AIF in
1942 aged 20.
He operated behind Japanese lines on the New Guinea mainland and,
with his command of Pidgin English well established, was later
attached to the American marines in New Britain performing civic
duties as the Pacific war moved on.
After the war, Holman used his Army demobilisation grant to earn a
Diploma of Art at the then East Sydney Technical College. Soon after
he travelled to Asia and spent three years as art director for the
Advertising Corporation of India in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay.
Upon returning to Sydney, he
worked for six years in the film
industry: designing sets and
working as an animator on many
short films.
During these years he began
portrait painting and also created a
number of murals including four at
the Shoal Bay Country Club Hotel –
which, upon the old building being
demolished in 2008, commissioned
him to recreate them for the new
Hal Holman's Crucifixion, based on a self-portrait Photo: Supplired
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8/26/2016 Hal Holman leaves huge artistic legacy for Australia and Papua New Guinea
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him to recreate them for the new
hotel 50 years later.
He moved to Port Moresby in the
early 1960s, initially employed as an
illustrator in the Department of
Education before becoming senior
artist for the colonial
administration, in which role he
created a huge artistic legacy for
Papua New Guinea.
During this period, he was provided
with government accommodation
in Port Moresby and constructed, in
his own backyard and eventually his
neighbours, a 27 tonne, ferro-
concrete catamaran.
Even before the first steel rod was
bent and tied, it was christened
Phoenix. His expressed intent was
to "build a boat and sail away"
whenever he might want to. That
was not to happen.
Holman returned to Australia
without Phoenix after running out
of money and selling the completed
hull which, when being towed to
Cairns, sank in a big swell outside
the entrance to Port Moresby
harbour. "Bad towing," he would
say.
But the experience of working with thousands of steel rods - welding,
bending, cementing, forging - had been transformational. As he
wrote later: "It had launched me into the beginnings of my destiny as
a sculptor."
Initially he was commissioned to render the PNG national crest in the
tonne of steel sculpture that dominates the facade of the Supreme
Court building in Port Moresby.
Around the same time, he produced a twice life-size bronze of Queen
Elizabeth II, commissioned by Britain as an independence gift to
Papua New Guinea.
Much later, in the early 2000s, Hal was asked to produce bronze busts
of PNG's first six prime ministers. He was chagrined when the
likeness of one, whose reputation suffered a dip, had his likeness
hidden in a garden shed for some years. But all six now reside in Port
Moresby's parliamentary gardens.
In Sydney, he produced the cast bronze of Filipino national hero Jose
Rizal , which stands in a park near Central Railway Station, a 50-metre
decorative steel fence in Centennial Park, the steel archway entrance
to Bancroft Park in Roseville, the black fibreglass and steel swans
which once flew over Darling Harbour before some swine did away
with them and, at Gordon Public Library, a children's secret garden
Hal Holman in 1942. Photo: Supplied
Hal Holman (NX83183) 2/6 Independent
Commando Squadron. Photo: Supplied
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Letters Editorials Column 8 Obituaries Peter Hartcher Ross Gittins Jessica Irvine John Birmingham Satire
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with them and, at Gordon Public Library, a children's secret garden
where resides a life-size steel giraffe and bronze bas relief of fairies,
pixies and gnomes.
Two of his last works were the bust of General John Baker, chief of the
Australian Defence Force, unveiled in 2009 by then prime minister
Kevin Rudd at defence for headquarters in Canberra, and the iconic
sculpture of the mermaid at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast.
On Australia Day 2004, he was awarded the Medal of the Order of
Australia the citation reading: "for service to the arts as a designer
and sculptor". And then in 2009, the PNG government awarded him
Officer of the Order of Logohu .
"This is the greatest day of my life," he said at the time, the
medallion hanging from his neck, adding that, although he had been
honoured by his own country, receiving one of Papua New Guinea's
highest honours was even more special.
Holman is survived by his wife Jo, son David, daughter Lisa, sister
Leonie and other family members.
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