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Fat man 1940

Artwork Fat man this artwork made of Bronze, wooden base, created in 1940-01-01
Accession No.
1:1781
Date Created
1940
Gallery location
Not on public display
Department
Australian Art
Dimensions A
29 x 12 x 10.4cm (without base)
Media Category
Sculpture
Secondary Media Category
metal
Medium
Bronze, wooden base
Credit Line
Purchased 1981

This figure is based on a wharf labourer Daphne Mayo observed from her hotel window during a visit to Paris in January 1938; her sketch survives among her collected papers in the Fryer Library at The University of Queensland. Though modernist in treatment, in its depiction of the dignity of labour, the figure recalls earlier depictions of peasant labourers by the Belgian sculptor Constantin Meunier (1831−1905), which Mayo may also have seen on her travels.  
 

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View this work on QAGOMA’s learning website

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Rights information

© Surf Lifesaving Foundation and The Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.)

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Stories featuring this object
DIDACTIC

Mayo’s modernist experiments

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Exhibitions featuring this object

Daphne Mayo’s Susannah (detail) 1946, cast 1995 photographed for ‘Let There Be Sculpture’, QAG, January 2012 / © Surf Lifesaving Foundation and The United Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.) / Photograph: R Fulton, QAGOMA

‘Daphne Mayo: Let There Be Sculpture’

Nov 2011 - Jan 2012

Works installed for 'Under a Modern Sun', Gallery 4, QAG, August 2025 / © The artists / Photograph: N Umek, QAGOMA

'Under a Modern Sun'

Aug 2025 - Jan 2026

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