Australian graphic designer Ruth Faerber has died at the age of 102. She never stopped creating art

In 1974, when a local Sydney newspaper wrote about the success of two local female artists, they were introduced using their husbands’ names. Ruth Faerber, who died at the age of 102she was named “Mrs. Hans (Ruth) Faerber of Castle Cove”.

This was later expanded to indicate that “the housewife and mother of two is the wife of Hans Faerber, a design engineer,” before describing her award-winning work and noting that she was also an art critic for the Jewish Times.

Always polite, always elegant, Faerber never vocally questioned such categorizations. However, from childhood until she was very old, she was above all an artist.

Young interest in art

Ruth Levy was born on October 9, 1922 in the Sydney suburb of Woollahra. After a less-than-pleasant experience at Sydney Girls High with an art teacher she later described as “an absolute lunatic”, she became a boarding student at Ravenswood.

Here she was inspired by a teacher Gladys Gibbons and became acquainted with graphics as an art. When Ruth told her father she wanted to quit school and become an artist, he agreed on the condition that “you have to be able to earn a living“.

She began studying at Peter Dodd’s Commercial Art School. Dodd’s friends included radical modernists Honest AND Margel Hinderrecently arrived from the United States, giving students a surprisingly radical art education.

Two years later, when the effects of World War II prompted young women to take up the jobs of men who had died, the 17-year-old was working as a junior commercial artist.

It was presented at the Fair Printing House photogravure printing and made her first experimental etching.

Ruth continued her education in Eastern Sydney Technical College. In 1944 she enrolled in Desiderius OrbanStudio on Rowe Street. The Hungarian refugee artist taught that rules should be broken, that artists must experiment and believe in their creativity.

These were lessons she never forgot.

Creating a life as an artist

In 1946, Ruth got married Hans Faerbera young engineer-designer who escaped from Germany in 1938.

Despite post-war cultural pressures for women to devote themselves exclusively to family, Ruth continued to paint, turning her garage into her studio and teaching art classes to children at home. She wanted to study printmaking, but this was not possible in Sydney: the only lithography course was for apprentice printers, and only men could apply.

In 1961 Joy Ewart donated her lithographic press to establish Sydney’s first public printing workshop Willoughby Arts Center. Faerber became one of its most active participants.

In 1963, the year of her first solo exhibition, the family moved to a house on Sydney’s north shore. Her new studio was built into the base of the cliff. To ensure safe access without the need for planning permission, Hans removed the floor from the broom closet and placed a ladder down to the studio.

Faerber’s ability to disappear into her cupboard right after dinner sometimes embarrassed her children and guests, but it gave her time to create art while working through the night.

Constant experimentation

By 1968, her prints had been acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, but she knew she had to find out more.

She received a scholarship from New York University Pratt Center. In New York she saw Rauschenberg Experiments in art and technology and recalled Orban’s order to constantly experiment. She began using spray paint as a medium and incorporating photographic images into her work. One of the prints features a newspaper photo of Leonard Cohen, taken after she saw him perform.

Her return to Australia saw constant experimentation. She also began writing, becoming an art critic for the Australian Jewish News. Her reviews were characterized by a generosity of spirit, particularly recognizing artists at the beginning of their careers. Favorite topics were women and graphic designers.

One of the most significant costs for graphic designers is the cost of imported handmade paper. In 1980, Faerber was invited to participate in the first hand-made papermaking workshops at the Tasmanian School of Art. Jabberwock Mill.

There she realized the possibilities of paper as a medium rather than a surface.

She abandoned standard shapes. Her experiments with paper became irregular, then sculptural. Paper began to be made from a variety of materials, including tapioca flour and cold tea. She discovered that if she sprayed a paper sculpture with car spray paint, she could simulate the feel of aged stone.

Although she closely followed the latest technological developments, sometimes her best tools of the trade were found at home. Electric frying pans, food processors and a microwave were reused for artistic purposes. An ironing board with a mesh base was used as a press for making paper. She has long been fascinated by archaeological sites, realizing how fragile civilizations and human life can be.

As she became physically frail, Faerber changed her practice towards creating digital prints, testing how far she could push new media to the limits of her abilities.