Ian Fairweather is one of Australia's most enigmatic and respected artists - special rooms of his work are set aside in the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Queensland Art Gallery. Fairweather's paintings are also very keenly sought after and his paintings are rare as he destroyed much of his work and many were lost through mildew, fire or rodent damage - even an official touring retrospective in 1994, organized by the prize-winning author Murray Bail for the Queensland Art Gallery, could muster up only sixty-four paintings.

Fairweather's painting Composition in Orange and Yellow of 1963 comes from an important period in his life when he more fully embraced abstraction and his paintings were Literature Abbot-Smith, N., Ian Fairweather: Profile of a Painter, University of Queensland Press, St. Lucia, 1978. Bail, M., Ian Fairweather, Bay Books, Sydney, 1981. Catalano, G., The Years of Hope: Australian Art and Criticism 1956-68, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1981. McQueen, H., The Black Swan of Trespass, Alternative Publishing Co-operative, 1979. Smith, B., Smith, T., Heathcote, C., Australian Painting, 1788-2000, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2001. Associate Professor Ken Wach Dip. Art; T.T.T.C.; Fellowship RMIT; MA; PhD. Former Head, School of Creative Arts The University of Melbourne...