New Members and Members' News

Welcome to New Member

We welcome HAMISH MARR into our group.
We all hope you enjoy participating in the ASV exhibitions.

Fay Gerber 100th Birthday

Our oldest and longest-standing member, Fay Gerber, will turn 100 on 26th July.

While she has not exhibited with us for some years, she has remained in contact with, and maintains an interest in, the Association and the activities of our members.

She became a member when the Victorian Sculptors Society, as we were then known, when it was re-formed after WWII in 1948. She exhibited with us for about 65 years, showing works in wood, ceramic, limestone and bronze.

Born in 1925, she commenced a 4 year art course at RMIT in 1944, straight after finishing school. As a general art course, Fay learned sculpture, including modelling, and building up concrete on an armature. The course also included drawing, painting and ceramics. There was also a focus on the techniques of reducing size and copying classical works in two and three dimensions as a means to learning basic skills. For three years, Fay studied under the guidance of Klytie Pate, a well-known ceramicist, who ran the RMIT course. Thus, she was very practiced at Klytie’s particular specialty of perforated ceramics, requiring specialised techniques. In her second year at RMIT, Fay was awarded a 3 year Sculpture Scholarship to study under sculptors George Allan, Stanley Hammond, OBE and Victor Greenhalgh, and painters Ann Montgomery and John Rowell, AO.

As a result of this training, she was attracted to wood carving and created a significant body of carved work. She feels that the process of cutting away material, as in carving, is her favourite process, although she has done a lot of built up, modelled work, both in ceramic and for bronze casting.

While at RMIT, in 1944, she came into contact with a jeweller teaching in the next room, which led to her taking jewellery classes at that time, and continuing the classes well into her 80’s, making a large range of beautiful, imaginative pieces.

Like many artists, her work has become more simplified and abstracted as she became more experienced, reflecting an increasing ability to recognise the most important features of a subject and to express them more simply and effectively.

She has lived in the same house that she and her husband George built in South Yarra, finished in 1953, which features a range of interesting individual details designed to fit their needs. These include a unique fold-down ironing board with a separate fold-down panel specifically for ironing George’s shirts. At the time, there were a number of restrictive building regulations which they had to work around in imaginative ways. There are shelves and alcoves specially designed to exhibit sculpture.

Along the way, in the 1950’s she had three daughters, Vicky, Wendy and Lindy, who remain closely connected to Fay and the house. Married in 1948, she made a trip to Japan with husband George, who worked for a Belgian Wool Buying company, Kreglinger & Furneau, to make contacts with the Japanese fabric industry as it was recovering from WWII. Flying to Japan at that time was quite a process in itself compared to air travel today.

Fay remains sharp and perceptive, full of clear memories, and as friendly and sympathetic as she has always been.

Happy centenary, Fay.