FRIEND 2010.577

In his search for tropical and exotic environments, the prominent Australian artist Donald Friend made numerous visits to north Queensland and also spent time in Nigeria, Ceylon and Bali. The first of Friend's series of decorative doors, which are among his largest, most complex and engaging works, were painted in Brisbane in 1955 for the then director of the Queensland Art Gallery, Robert Haines.

Friend was a leading figure in art and architectural decoration during the time he spent in Ceylon from 1957 to 1961; his example and visual legacy inspired the next generation of Ceylonese artists. Adam and Eve is one of Friend's decorative masterpieces and equally merits his description of a related door (which could well be used to describe the artist himself): ‘brilliant, complicated, sumptuous and slightly absurd'.