In an interview, on the occasion of painter Guy Warren’s 100th birthday, he said: ‘No one warned me that at 100, I was going to be busier than ever.’
It is a sentiment Warren further shared that same year with art critic John McDonald: ‘People talk about embracing the dignity of old age. F*** the dignity of old age! I don’t want to know anything about it.’
He continued: ‘Retirement is an absurdity! I’ve never understood the idea. People see it as the point where they can stop working and do what they’ve always wanted to do – but then they find it’s far too late! Give me another 10 years and I might start thinking about retirement.’
While Warren didn’t make another 10 years, he did celebrate his 103rd birthday, before his death last Friday, 14 June.
Warren’s son Paul, a cinematographer, told ABC Arts that his father was still painting three weeks ago, with several unfinished works in the studio.
Warren lived in the Sydney suburb of Greenwich and travelled regularly to his studio in Leichhardt in the inner west. His energy was seemingly tireless, and he continued to inspired other artists in his later years.
In an earlier interview with ArtsHub, Warren said: ‘The most important thing of all – always be curious, to look around the corner and to see what can be done, to look at other ideas and ways to tackle a problem.’
He continued: ‘We need to make the community more art conscious… We need to make art seem more relevant to Australians.’
Read: When you’ve still got it at 100: Q&A with artist Guy Warren
Tributes flooded social media over the weekend, celebrating his life.
How it all started
Born in the regional NSW town of Goulburn in 1921, Warren had a career that spanned more than eight decades.
He left school at 14 and worked as an assistant proofreader at The Bulletin. It was here he met art editor John Frith, who encouraged him to start art classes at night, and so he enrolled at the J S Watkins Art School.
But by 19, Warren had enlisted in the Army and served in New Guinea and Bougainville (1941-1946). He always had a sketch book handy to capture his fellow soldiers. Later he served in south-east Queensland, where he was particularly drawn to the landscape, which would remain a constant across his long career.
After the war, Warren studied at the National Art School in Sydney under the Commonwealth Rehabilitation Training Scheme, before moving with his new wife, potter Joy Warren, to London, where they lived for nearly a decade. There he studied at the Chelsea School of Art, the London School of Art and the Central School of Arts and Crafts.
Warren returned to become the inaugural director of The University of Sydney’s Tin Sheds Gallery. In 1976 he was appointed Principal Lecturer and Head of Painting at the new Sydney College of the Arts (1976-1985), and from 1992 to 2002 he was the Director of the University of Wollongong Art Collection.
Warren shared his advice with ArtsHub: ‘My advice to students is to work hard, obviously, but to be furious about what you do. Don’t listen too much to all the theories that people tell you, and rather carry on what you do – what is important to you.
‘Most importantly, mix with a lot of other artists, particularly those whom you respect, not necessarily just admire, but who are sincere and professional and know what they are doing. You will learn much more from them than any art school.’
A career well mapped
Warren started exhibiting in 1955, but his big break was when he was thrust into the spotlight in 1985, winning the prestigious Archibald prize with a painting of his dear friend, the late sculptor Bert (Herbert) Flugelman.
The pair shared adjoining properties at Jamberoo on the south coast, and worked together at the University of Wollongong.
Over his career, Warren chalked up in excess of 50 solo exhibitions – painting clearly came easy to him. His style was a kind of lyrical abstraction, often celebrating – yet deviating – from the figure in the landscape genre.
In an ABC iview interview for Art Works, he explained: ‘Drawing is a primal urge, since some idiot picked up a burnt stick from a fireplace… Drawing the landscape, making sense of where we fit into the world, that is all it is about.’
Warren called himself a ‘mark maker’, and lacked the ego often associated with such an illustrious career.
Perhaps his biggest mark on a canvas was in 1994, when Warren used a Cessna plane to draw the image of Icarus – a figure of Greek mythology – over Sydney’s skies. Icarus was a regular visit to Warren’s works over the years.
Warren was again thrust into the spotlight in 2021 – his centenary year. He was the subject of Melbourne artist Peter Wegner’s Archibald Prize-winning portrait. Caught in pandemic lockdowns, Warren received the award on Wegner’s behalf, saying at the time: ‘Four or five people painted me for this Archibald. I have never met [Wegner] – he contacted me by email – and I have never seen the painting until today and it really is an extraordinarily good painting.’
Among his wins, Warren was additionally awarded the Flotta Lauro Travelling Art Scholarship in 1967, the Art Gallery of New South Wales Trustees’ Watercolour Award in 1979, the Bronze Medal at the 4th International Triennial of Drawing in Poland (1988) and, in 1996, he was again an Archibald finalist with a self-portrait.
Guy Warren was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 1999, and then made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2013.
In his own centenary year, he was celebrated with a succession of events: King Street Gallery on William showed his new work, the National Art School had an overview of his drawings, Gallery Lane Cove hosted a survey show and there were other shows at the University of Wollongong and the Nicholas Thompson Gallery in Melbourne.
He concluded: ‘I think artists are really lucky.’
At the time of his death, Warren was represented by King Street Gallery on William in Sydney and Nicholas Thompson Gallery in Melbourne.
Warren is survived by his two children, Joanna and Paul. His wife Joy Warren died in 2011.