John Dowie (artist)

John Stuart Dowie AM (15 January 1915 – 19 March 2008) was an Australian painter, sculptor, and teacher. His work includes over 50 public sculpture commissions, including the "Three Rivers" fountain in Victoria Square, "Alice" in Rymill Park, the "Victor Richardson Gates" at Adelaide Oval and the "Sir Ross & Sir Keith Smith Memorial" at Adelaide Airport.

John Stuart Dowie was born in the Adelaide suburb of Prospect, a son of Charles Stuart Dowie (c. 1874–1937)^[1] and his wife Gertrude Phillis Dowie, née Davey (1881–1956), who married in 1910.^[2] His siblings were David Lincoln Dowie (1911–1991), Jean Phillis Dowie (1913–2010), and Donald Alexander "Don" Dowie (1917–2016).^[3][4] The family moved to the leafy suburb of Dulwich in 1917.

He attended Rose Park Primary School and Adelaide High School before studying architecture at the University of Adelaide and painting at the South Australian School of Art; teachers included Ivor Hele and Marie Tuck.^[5] Between 1936 and 1940 he studied architecture at the University of Adelaide, immersed in the avant-garde movement then prevalent; he designed the cover for Phoenix, which gave rise to Angry Penguins. He contributed eight linocuts to Phoenix in 1935 and 1936.^[6]

Dowie enlisted with the 2nd AIF in 1940, serving in the 2/43rd Battalion. He fought in the Siege of Tobruk, where the Allied soldiers were dubbed "The Rats of Tobruk".^[7]

He next worked in the Military History Unit of the 2nd AIF as an assistant to Australia's first official war sculptor, Lyndon Dadswell.^[5] In 1943 he returned to his old Battalion, serving at Finschhafen, New Guinea.

After studying art in London and Florence, Dowie returned to Australia and became a member of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts and Dorrit Black's "Group 9", which included Geoffrey Shedley and Mary Shedley, Lisette Kohlhagen, Mary Harris, Ernst Milston, Marjorie Gwynne, and Ruby Henty.^[8]

One of his earliest commissions was from Adelaide architect D. P. Michelmore for the Ross and Keith Smith memorial, first installed outside the Vickers-Vimy hangar at the domestic terminal, West Beach Airport (since renamed Adelaide Airport). A massive undertaking, it consists of four oversize standing figures in high relief, carved in Gosford sandstone, overall size 3.36 by 2.74 metres (11.0 ft × 9.0 ft), and was unveiled on 27 April 1958.^[9] It now stands outside the Vickers-Vimy Memorial at the east end of the new terminal.

He created dozens of statues, mostly in bronze, of prominent figures, none more so perhaps than the bust of Elizabeth II, who sat for him on five occasions in 1987 in the Yellow Drawing Room at Buckingham Palace. Dowie modelled directly in clay, from which he made plaster moulds (at the Palace) which were sent to the Meridian Sculpture Foundry,^[a] Fitzroy, Melbourne, to be cast in bronze using the lost-wax process, in time for the official opening of New Parliament House, Canberra in March 1988.^[10]

Dowie was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in 1981 in recognition of his service to the arts as a sculptor and painter.^[11]

In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Adelaide, "for his contribution to the spiritual and artistic life of Adelaide and the nation".^[12]

He was named Senior Australian of the Year for South Australia in 2005.^[12][13]

A bust of Dowie, sculpted in 2006 by another South Australian sculptor, John Woffinden, stands in front of the State Library of South Australia on North Terrace in Adelaide.^[12]

After the death of his mother Dowie purchased the family home at 28 Gurney Road, Dulwich. Dowie never married. The painter Helen Alexandra "Penny" Dowie is a niece,^[14][15] daughter of Donald Alexander "Don" and Margaret "Peg" Dowie, née Burden,^[16][17]

He was a regular attendee at the Unitarian Church on Osmond Terrace in Norwood. One of his paintings, described as a "large colourful painting depicting liberal religion" adorns the church.^[18]

Dowie had a stroke which took his speech away two years before his death. However, he continued to communicate by means of his intonation, gestures, and facial expressions.^[18]

He died on 19 March 2008, aged 93, in an Adelaide nursing home, after suffering another stroke the week before.^[19]

He was given a state funeral in March 2008 and a memorial service for him was held in Bonython Hall at the University of Adelaide on 22 April 2008.^[12]

He was buried in a country churchyard near Littlehampton, South Australia.

Partial list of public works by John Dowie:^[12]

• Ross and Keith Smith memorial
• Father and Son, tribute to Sir John Downer
• Mark Oliphant
• Oliphant
• Howard Florey
• Florey
• Mellis Napier
• Napier
• Louis Laybourne Smith
• Kangaroo and Platypus, The Water Gardens, Hemel Hempstead, UK
• Robert Torrens
• Douglas Mawson
• Alice (in Wonderland)
• Characters at base of Alice statue
• Three Rivers Fountain in Victoria Square, Adelaide
• Three Rivers fountain
• Three Rivers fountain
• Hans Heysen aged 89

• Dowie by John Woffinden, 2006
• Plaque for Woffinden head
• Original grave marker
• Later headstone

• John Dowie: A Life in the Round, autobiography ed. Tracey Lock-Weir, Wakefield Press Adelaide ISBN 1-86254-550-2