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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Second Session (51-2)
2008-04-02 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

DOWIE, MR J.

The Hon. J.D. HILL (Kaurna—Minister for Health, Minister for the Southern Suburbs, Minister Assisting the Premier in the Arts) (15:27): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.D. HILL: I wish to remind the house about the life of an outstanding South Australian, the late John Dowie, who died on 19 March this year, and who will be fondly remembered as an artist of 'the people'. He was one of South Australia's best loved artists and expressed an infectious exuberance for art and life. His popular Adelaide sculptures, such as the Girl on a Slide in Rundle Mall, Alice in Rymill Park, and the iconic Three Rivers fountain in Victoria Square have become synonymous with the City of Adelaide and made him a household name. Subsequent major public art commissions, such as that of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for Parliament House, extended his artistic reputation into the national realm.

Dowie first studied architecture at the University of Adelaide and later followed his keen interest in fine art, returning to the South Australian School of Art, where he had previously commenced artistic studies in 1925 at the precociously young age of 10. At the art school he worked under the tutelage of great European-trained South Australian artists Ivor Hele and Marie Tuck. He later travelled to Europe to further refine his skills, enrolling in sculpture at Sir John Cass College in London and then at the Porta Romana College at the Academia in Florence. On his return to Adelaide in 1953 he was offered a part-time teaching position at the South Australian School of Art, and by 1962 he was able to practise as a full-time artist.

John Dowie's convivial personality disarmed many of his notable subjects, leading to the creation of bronze portraits of many distinguished identities of the 20th century, including Sir Edmund Hillary, Sir Hans Heysen, Sir Robert Helpmann, Sir Mark Oliphant, Lloyd Rees and  Hubert Wilkins.

It was my pleasure to assist in the unveiling of the Hubert Wilkins sculpture in the State Library of South Australia a year or so ago with John Dowie. I met him on a couple of occasions. One memorable occasion was when I visited his house, which was also his studio, a place where he lived, I think, pretty well all of this life, and saw the amazing works of art, not only on canvas and under construction but also on his ceilings and walls. He was truly a gifted and committed artist.

The generally optimistic tenor of his work rarely revealed the harsh realities of his five-year service during World War II, with the 2/43rd Battalion of the AIF in Libya, as a Rat of Tobruk and in Palestine, Egypt and New Guinea. Although he became best known as a sculptor, Dowie was also a talented draftsman and painter, and drew prolifically through his productive career. His public art can be found in locations across the country, and he is represented in the art collections of nearly all major states and in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

In 1981, his services to Australian art were recognised, and he was awarded a Member of the Order of Australia (AM). In 2001, John Dowie's outstanding 80-year contribution to the visual arts in South Australia was commemorated by the state government's commissioning of a monograph and the staging of an enormously successful retrospective exhibition at Carrick Hill. Further accolades followed. In 2004, he was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Adelaide, and in 2005 he was named South Australia's Senior Australian of the Year.

Despite his frail health, John Dowie continued to draw in the days before his death at the age of 93. John Dowie was an inspiring South Australian. He is survived by his brother, Dr Donald Dowie, his sister, Ms Jean Dowie, and his extended family of nephews and nieces, and I am sure the house would join me in passing onto them our condolences.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

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