OMU, 1953

Works from the Donald Friend Collection
Sydney
27 October 2013
27

DONALD FRIEND

(1915 - 1989)
OMU, 1953

ink, wash and pastel on paper

46.5 x 30.0 cm

signed, dated and inscribed lower left: Omu / Donald Friend '53

Estimate: 
$8,000 - 12,000
Sold for $8,640 (inc. BP) in Auction 31 - 27 October 2013, Sydney
Literature

Hughes, R., Donald Friend, Edwards and Shaw, Sydney, 1965, p. 64 (illus.)

Catalogue text

On the whole, he disliked the Londoners, finding them grey, seedy, and mousy; among the whites he was in Orwell territory, a colourless desert of little clerks. But he spent most of his evenings in the jazz cellars and coffee-shops frequented by Negroes, and there he found the vitality he craved: a relaxed, hipster sensuality, totally unaffected, energetic: a tough little enclave of life into which he could move without strain. And the black men were good to draw. 'If you draw a negro, especially a West African man, you never catch him posing. Everything they do is natural, not like most white models.'1

1. Hughes, R., Donald Friend, Edwards and Shaw, Sydney, 1965, p. 26