About

LJLA Event with artist Eleanor Hart and Dr Seumas Spark

Erwin Fabian (1915–2020) was a sculptor, industrial designer and graphic artist whose remarkable life journey spanned Germany, England and Australia. Born in Berlin, the son of painter Max Fabian, he studied drawing at the School of Art and Craft before fleeing Nazi Germany in 1938. After arriving in England, Fabian continued his artistic education while supporting himself through various jobs and spending countless hours studying art at the Victoria and Albert Museum library.

With the outbreak of the Second World War, Fabian was interned as an “enemy alien” and deported to Australia aboard the Dunera in 1940. He was interned in camps in Hay, Orange and Tatura before later serving in the Australian Army. Following the war, Fabian spent twelve years in London working as a graphic designer before returning to settle permanently in Melbourne.

This special event with Dr Seumas Spark and acclaimed artist Eleanor Hart will explore Fabian’s life, art and the vibrant community of European Jewish refugees and migrants who succeeded to revive their cultural life in Melbourne in post-war years.

Eleanor Hart’s own family history closely connects with this story. In the late 1930s, her parents, Kurt and Peggy, fled Vienna for Melbourne shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. While they found refuge in Australia, many of their relatives who remained in Europe were murdered in the Holocaust. Born in Australia, Hart will speak about growing up in Melbourne’s post-war Jewish community and her long friendship with Erwin Fabian.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Eleanor Hart has established herself as one of Australia’s most respected artists. Working across painting, drawing and printmaking, her work is known for its expressive exploration of colour, movement, space and light. Influenced by her Jewish and Viennese heritage and her experience growing up in post-war Melbourne as the child of migrants, Hart’s practice explores themes of memory, migration, displacement and identity.

Dr Seumas Spark is an adjunct fellow in history at Monash University. His books include (as co-authored) Shadowline: The Dunera Diaries of Uwe Radok, ‘I Wonder’: The Life and Times of Ken Inglis and Dunera Lives: A Visual History. His work appears regularly in Australian Book Review and Inside Story, among other places.

Erwin’s portraits https://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2002.66/fred-gruen and https://www.portrait.gov.au/portraits/2002.69/kurt-baier
Paintings painted while interned in Australia https://www.dunerastories.monash.edu/erwin-fabian-gallery.html
A short interview about Erwin Fabian in ABC https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/booksandarts/erwin-fabian/691393

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