Daphne Mayo / Australia 1895–1982 / Fat man 1940 / Bronze, wooden base / 29 x 12 x 10.4cm (without base); 44 x 19 x 22.6 cm (with base) / Purchased 1981 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Surf Lifesaving Foundation and the Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (Q.)

Daphne Mayo
Fat man 1940

Not Currently on Display

Daphne Mayo completed Fat man 1940 late in her career. Early sketches indicate that the figure is based on a wharf labourer she observed from her Paris hotel window during a visit in January 1938. Mayo’s success in gaining commissions for major public works in Brisbane left little time for her to develop her personal work, and it was not until after this second trip overseas (during 1938–39), and her move to Sydney in 1940, that she was able to work more experimentally.

In France, Mayo was impressed by the ‘updated Classicism’ that characterised the sculptures of Aristide Maillol. The solid, rounded mass of Fat man reflects Maillol’s influence in its combination of classic stance and proportion with an element of the everyday. The figure is imbued with a sense of spontaneity, indicating Mayo’s willingness to explore modern approaches to sculpture not present in her often classical commissions and public sculptures.

Born in Sydney, Daphne Mayo’s family moved to Brisbane when she was still a child. She studied art at Brisbane Technical College, where she was awarded the Wattle Day League Scholarship to study at the Royal Academy Schools in London. Mayo was the first woman to be admitted to the academy’s School of Sculpture for some years, and she achieved considerable success, winning a number of awards during her time there. On graduating in 1923, she was also awarded the school’s gold medal for sculpture, which earned her the Edward Stott Travelling Studentship prize of a trip to Italy.

On her return to Australia, Mayo received commissions to carve the tympanum over the portico of the Brisbane City Hall, and for war memorials in Anzac Square, Brisbane, and at The King’s School, Parramatta. With Vida Lahey, Mayo helped establish the Queensland Art Fund (1929) with the aim of acquiring major works for the Queensland Art Gallery’s Collection. She was awarded the medal of the Society of Artists and made a Member of the British Empire for services rendered to art.

Daphne Mayo was a great believer in making art publicly accessible, rejecting the idea that it could only be enjoyed by a cultural elite. In an interview in Brisbane’s Courier, dated 3 February 1933, she said: ‘Art is simply an integral part of everyone’s life. . .it enters every phase of daily life, in the dresses (they) wear, the cup (they) drink from, the rug on the floor. There is nothing in any home that is not some example of art, either good or bad’.

Discussion Questions

1. Take a close look at the man. Can we tell his story by looking at how Daphne Mayo has made him? Tell his history…Who is he? Where does he live? Where is he going? Where has he been? What is he carrying?

2. In what ways does Fat man differ from a classical figure representation?

3. Discuss the strategies Mayo has used to suggest: (a) the weight of the load the fat man is carrying; (b) the strength of the man carrying the load; and (c) the sense of forward motion suggested in the sculpture.

Classroom Activities

1. Make a sculpture of a member of your family. Tell their story using the clay. Think about physical appearance, clothes, jewellery.

2. Draw figure sketches of the ‘human body at work’ using props suitable for the classroom model. Give the model a pillowslip stuffed full of bubble wrap or crushed newspaper to ‘sling’ over their shoulder in the manner of the Fat man. Load a wheelbarrow with empty boxes for the model to ‘push’ against. Give the model a large box, or a large exercise ball to hoist up on their shoulder or back as a heavy ‘burden’ to bear. Each pose should begin with a couple of rapid gesture or blind contour drawings, and culminate in a 10 to 15 minute sustained pose. Try to capture the force and weight suggested by the burden and the body in each pose. The sketches could later be developed as little clay figurines.