Sunday, December 04, 2005

IVOR HELE: THE GREAT WAR ILLUSTRATOR


The best war illustrator you've never heard of is Ivor Hele (1912-1993) who depicted searing images of combat and military life in World War II and the Korean War.




As an official war artist for the Australian government, Hele spent a year at the frontlines in the North African campaign from 1941-42.





Hele then traveled to the South Pacific island of New Guinea where he drew and painted the fierce combat between the Australians and the Japanese in dark and difficult jungle terrain.





He returned to Australia physically and emotionally exhausted and began a prolific period in his career. After a year, he returned to New Guineau where he worked in the trenches with the troops until he was injured. Hele lay unconscious for two days. He was transported to a hospital in Australia where, after a long convalesence, he resumed working. At the height of the Korean War, Hele spent five months in the mud and the cold of Korea, brilliantly recording the struggles of the Australian soldiers in their trenches.






After the war, Hele illustrated a few books, magazines and calendars, but he was mostly kept busy with commissions to illustrate great battles of the second world war. Almost 500 of his paintings and drawings are housed at the Australian War Memorial.



The most striking thing about Ivor Hele was that, after traveling the globe and devoting his life to recording every form of savagery that humans can wreak upon each other, he finally reached his saturation level of death and despair and retreated to an isolated cottage on a remote Australian beach. There he lived the life of a hermit, drawing and painting intimate pictures of his wife.




Other artists have found their muse in a particular woman and shut themselves off from the rest of the world--Gaston Lachaise and Bonnard to name just two. But in my view, Hele was far more poetic and tragic. A scorched human being, he stumbled out of the embrace of thanatos (death) and sought refuge in the arms of eros. His private drawings of his wife from this period are both graphic and lovely. One imagines that these sensitive studies of the human form were the best possible therapy for regaining his humanity.

27 comments:

  1. WOW this stuff is amazing. Some of the portraits feel like Nicholai Fechin's work too. I hope you can get some the links to work though. :) Thanks for the history lesson.

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  2. Wow, terrific work! Thanks for posting.

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  3. Thanks, skinshark. I'm working on those links! If you like Nicholai Fechin, have you looked at the work of Ilya Repin? It's sometimes hard to get good reproductions of his work, but he is another extraordinary Russian painter / illustrator in the same vein. If you ever make it to St. Petersburg, they have an extraordinary collection of his work in the state museum there.

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  4. Stunning work - a great post, David... and whatta ya know, once again I've learned something! Many thanks.

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  5. Yeah I'm familiar with Ilya Repin. I've studied painting in the Russian Impressionistic style of that lineage. Sergei Bongart is another more contemporary artist whose color is bombastic to say the least. I don't know if I'll make it to St. Petersburg any time soon, but there is a Museum of Russian art in Minnieapolis of all things. Again, thanks for posting.

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  6. Those drawings are nothing short of god-like.
    Beautiful stuff David.

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  7. Incredible images and story...Thanks for posting this, I will definitely look more into this artist...

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  8. Beautiful Work!
    great post
    another russian painter I like is Valentin Serov

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  9. Ivor..Is my Great Uncle. He is my Grandpa's cousin. He has the first ever picture that Ivor has drawn. It was from when he was young and it is a black and white picture of a cowboy on a horse. My mothers last name was Hele before she married my father. If any of you would like to talk more.. My email adress is cant_think_4@hotmail.com :) thanks

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  10. Ivor..Is my Great Uncle. He is my Grandpa's cousin. He has the first ever picture that Ivor has drawn. It was from when he was young and it is a black and white picture of a cowboy on a horse. My mothers last name was Hele before she married my father. If any of you would like to talk more.. My email adress is cant_think_4@hotmail.com :) thanks

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    1. Yes likewise we are related to Ivor

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    2. Hi!! I think my father worked alongside Ivor when he was in Brisbane during ww2.

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  11. wow, so amazing. thanks

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  12. i loved his work so much so i had one picture tattooed on my whole back

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  13. The drawings presented are very fine and inspiring. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.
    I'm enjoying your wonderful blog and the comments by others with such passion for great art.

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  14. Im a Hele.
    Ivor is my pops uncle.
    Ive just been looking at the
    history of my family.
    Gained heaps from this article.
    thanks :)

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. I'm a Hele! He is my great uncle

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    3. We are related to Ivor We share the same great grandfather !Andrew Hele !

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  15. Just an additional information about this Australian legend..He won the coveted Archibald prize (portrait) 5 times (1951, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1957). His last win was with a stunning self portrait..

    Xavier

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  16. What a great site and a wonderful tribute to this late Australian war artist who contributed so much to recording the war.
    My late father Geoffrey Mainwaring studied with Ivor back in Adelaide, he also was a SA war artist....if you want any details you will find a heap of his work on AWM site...he and Ivor had very similar styles...nice work, thanks for posting this
    Julia Mainwaring :-)

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  17. If drawing is your thing the work of Ivor Hele is right up there with the best. A more recent publication is Ivor Hele: The heroic Figure 2007. This may be a National Gallery of Australia publication, possibly an exhibition catalogue.

    Also lookup http://www.wakefieldpress.com.au/product.php?productid=417
    Ivor Hele, The Productive Artist - by Jane Hylton

    There are also two other publications out there somewhere. For those interested in wartime (WWII) painting and drawing the Australian Armed Forces (Army, Navy and Airforce) published a series of books for each of the services during and immediately after the war featuring a great many magnificent examples of wartime art including the work of Ivor Hele of course.

    Keep the blog rolling David

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  18. Sandra McMahon2/16/2014 6:23 PM

    I am looking for a painting Ivor Hele painted of my mother. I have a news paper article which says - Informal snap of two sisters Jean and Myrtle Miller, of hectorville, both serving with W.A.A.A.F. Myrtle (right) has been painted by official war artist Ivor Hele as an "Ideal W.A.A.A.F." The Australian war museum has no record of it so I am thinking it must be in someone's private collection. Sadly my mother passed away in 2012 not knowing of it's where abouts but I would still dearly love to know where it is and hopefully get to see it.

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    1. Hi Sandra, I’ve just found this blog and I know it’s rather old. I found your mum’s service record and it looks like she was working as a map tracer in the advanced land headquarters in Brisbane in the university of qld buildings. My father was also working in this section during ww2. I’ve recently found some photos that show him and those that he worked with. Ivor Hele was one of them. There are photos of the artists studio as well and I wonder if your mum’s portrait is on the easel in one of the images. Please contact me if you see this post. The images are here https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C1028927
      John STEPHENSEN john.nebraska.red@gmail.com

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  19. My mother and father knew Ivor very well and commissioned two works by him - one is the only life sized double portrait he ever did. The other called "the Simpson's' is of two horses 3 young men and a small girl (representative of myself, my two brothers and our late sister Torie in a seascape (I imagine close to where Ivor retired). We have many letters between my late father Col. Simpson and my mum (still alive at 90) - a fascinating man who was arguably one of the best artists of the 20th Century - certainly Australia's most celebrated Portrait Painter. He could have gone on entering the Archibold Prize but in true Ivor form he was gracious enough to leave it at 5 wins from as I understand 5 entries.

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  20. ironically, i found this post from your imposter (the avocare link you had posted in the comments section of the Starr series) - a really really roundabout way of finding this little gem but I am glad i did - Hele's stuff is honest and amazing - thank you!

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