Tony Fomison: Life of the Artist

Tony Fomison, one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed painters, was a highly talented but troubled artist whose life was blighted by his addiction to drugs and alcohol, leading eventually to his early death.

In his biography of the artist, Mark Forman has taken a deep dive into Fomison’s life. Over the course of his decade-long research, he interviewed and corresponded with more than 120 of Tony Fomison’s friends and acquaintances. They all had their own version of how they remembered him. Tony Fomison was a man of multitudes:

The artist, the activist, the son, the disrupter, the sibling, the archaeologist, the lover, the friend, the historian, the trickster, the addict, the scholar. These were the more obvious, but no doubt there were others, and of course, the forever secret self.

Mark Forman meticulously untangled this complicated web to create a compelling portrait of a shy asthmatic boy from a working-class family in Christchurch who as a teenager became fascinated with Māori rock art. He went on to work as an archaeological assistant at Canterbury University, surveying and making hundreds of drawings of them for the Museum. But after attending Art School, he chose to devote his life to art and went on to become one of New Zealand’s most outstanding painters.

As an artist, Fomison always prided himself on being an outsider and was dismissive of international art trends, both modernism and abstraction. Yet he sought the company of other artists and approached dealer galleries with requests to show his work. He was always keen to exhibit his paintings to grow his reputation.

Friends recognised his talent, enjoyed his lively conversations, accepted his lack of personal hygiene and his grubby and messy personal life, and generously supported him. But some were eventually alienated by his sometimes strangely abusive behaviour and unreasonable demands.

Throughout his narrative, Forman has skilfully woven together Tony Formison’s life and his art. He shows how his art practice and subject matter were influenced by his life experiences both overseas and in New Zealand. A seminal influence on his art was when, after winning an Arts Council Grant, he was able to see the works of old masters at first hand in England and Europe and became enchanted by European Renaissance Art. And later, his move to Auckland meant that Tony, who was endlessly curious about Māori and Pacific history and art, was able to make personal connections with Māori and Pacific people. This helped him in his efforts to find a new visual language to communicate to viewers what it means to live in the Pacific.

Tony Fomison’s paintings of grotesques, mythologies and monumental heads evoke deep feelings in viewers. Personally, I was horrified by his gruesome portrait of a malignant growth on the tongue of a cancer patient. But was deeply moved by his tranquil and spiritually uplifting mural of Jesus as a Pacific Island teenager beside his mother Mary, which he created for St Paul’s Catholic school in Ponsonby. Mark Forman has greatly broadened my understanding of how such very diverse artworks came into being.

In his book, photographs of Tony Fomison have been carefully chosen to complement the text. Some show Tony at work at the Muka studio, the Rita Angus Cottage and Barry Brickell’s Driving Creek Pottery. Others are of Tony socialising with close friends, or by himself at work or out in our natural environment. He was also an activist, and Gil Hanly photographed Tony protesting against the Springbok Tour.

Tony was an enthusiastic lifelong collector of second-hand books, cheap prints, naïve paintings and curiosities and trinkets from second-hand shops and markets. His friend, photographer Mark Adams, took a series of photographs of how Tony arranged these acquisitions artfully in his home in Ponsonby. Some of Mark Adam’s other photographs included in this book are of Tony undergoing the gruelling process of receiving a p’ea, a traditional Samoan male tattoo.

But no reproductions of Tony Fomison’s artworks are featured in Tony Fomison which is a great shame. Mark Forman was keen to include them, but the Fomison family would not give their permission. Forman surmises that this was less to do with any factual errors, which he did his utmost to correct, and more to do with a family wanting certain parts of a brother’s story to be emphasized and others to be left out. But including the gritty parts of his life, as Forman has done, did not in any way diminish my appreciation of Tony Fomison’s considerable talents as an artist. They were all part of who he was and what drove him to create his art.

Tony was a prolific artist and even, during the periods of his life when he was in poor health, he always remained focused on his art and continued to work with a dogged determination. Reading about the last months of his life when he struggled to do so, and how his life came to an end shortly after he collapsed at the Treaty Celebrations at Waitangi is truly heart-wrenching. Aged 50, he was gone far too soon, but he left behind a rich legacy of paintings, drawings and lithographs.

At over 400 pages, Tony Fomison is a long read. But a shorter narrative would not have done justice to Forman’s extensive research into Tony Fomison’s life. It is a formidable achievement.

Art history students especially will find it an invaluable reference book. And as it is written in such an accessible style it is also sure to appeal to all art lovers.

Reviewer: Lyn Potter

Auckland University Press