Jacqueline Fahey
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Jacqueline Fahey ONZM |
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|---|---|
| Born | 1929 (age 87–88) Timaru, New Zealand |
| Nationality | New Zealander |
| Awards | Arts Foundation Icon Award |
Jacqueline Mary Fahey ONZM (born 1929) is a New Zealand painter and writer.
Fahey is of Irish-Catholic ancestry and was born in Timaru in 1929. She was educated at Teschemakers, a now-closed Catholic boarding school for girls, near Oamaru. She then studied at the Canterbury University College School of Art, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1952.
Fahey has three children and was married to prominent psychiatrist Fraser McDonald, who she met at a party at her flat in Wellington. During her married life, Fahey and her family lived in psychiatric institutions in Australia and New Zealand. Fraser died in 1994.
Fahey has written two memoirs about her life: Something for the Birds (2006) and Before I Forget (2012).
Jacqueline Fahey studied at the Canterbury University College School of Art, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts in 1952.
Fahey has been an active painter since the 1950s. She is credited as being one of the first painters in New Zealand to paint from a female perspective and examine the domestic subjects of contemporary women's existence: children, the home, marriage, community life, and relationships. During many of her years as a practising artist, Fahey did not have a studio, but instead painted on a trolley, surrounded by the activities and energy of her family and household. Fahey has said:
"Art should come from what an artist knows about life, and if what a woman knows is not what a man knows, then her art is going to have to be different."
Fahey's paintings depict the detail, disorder and minutiae of domestic life, but simultaneously disrupt it, by playing with perspective and space within and across the image's frame. Objects pile on top of each other, surfaces are intricately patterned, and figures merge with their surroundings. The oil painting Christine in the Pantry (1973), held in the collection of Aigantighe Art Gallery in Timaru, is an example of Fahey's manipulation of space, patterning, and depiction of everyday, prosaic objects. The women in Fahey's paintings often look directly out at the viewer, challenging or questioning the gaze directed at them. For example, in the painting Final Domestic Expose - I paint Myself (1981-1982), held in the collection of the Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Fahey is shown calmly contemplating the viewer whilst surrounded by a maelstrom of children, food, washing, cosmetics, and other objects associated with family life.
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