42

BARRY HUMPHRIES (1934-2023)
Murray River 1993

oil on canvas
signed and dated lower right: Barry Humphries '93
43 x 59cm

PROVENANCE
The David Dridan Family Collection, Adelaide

EXHIBITED
By Barry Humphries: From the David Dridan Family Collection, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide, 17 November - 13 April 2024

OTHER NOTES
Accompanied by a framed photograph of Barry executing the painting

ESSAY
South Australian landscape painter David Dridan has amassed a beautiful collection of stories and artworks from a lifelong friendship with the late Australian comedian Barry Humphries. The collection was recently memorialised at a 2024 exhibition at the Adelaide Festival Centre, titled ‘By Barry Humphries: From the David Dridan Family Collection'. I interviewed Dridan about the collection, where he reminisced fondly of his painting trips to Wilpena Pound, the Clare Valley, the Flinders Ranges, and Sand Hill - often spent in the company of Barry Humphries. Dridan's paintings are held in significant public and private collections worldwide. His careers in the arts spans teaching, serving as Curator for The Art Gallery of South Australia, co-founding the Fleurieu Art Prize, and running a private gallery, workshop and a winery. Aside from his busy working life, Dridan painted extensively, capturing the diverse landscape throughout South Australia. This selection of paintings, ephemera, and artworks represents the mutual respect between the two artists, Dridan and Humphries, distilled in brushstrokes and bolstered by a strong friendship that endured despite the tyranny of distance.

The collection includes ephemeral material such as Humphries' own easel, paints, and a painting hat (Lot 47). Humphries was known for stripping down to his Speedos, putting on the aforementioned painting hat, and away he'd go! He acquired great accolades for his stage personalities and iconic alter egos, Dame Edna Everage and Les Patterson. However, despite his success as a vaudevillian and writer, Dridan reflected, ‘Barry always said he wished he were a painter and not a comedian.' The collection includes a rare example of Humphries' early Dadaist artworks titled ‘Tucker Box' (Lot 46). The sculptural piece involves a painted Arnott's carton box laden with Humphries unique sense of humour in references to the famed Melbourne artist, Albert Tucker. The eccentric piece was a gift from Humphries in 1977, intended for Dridan to carry his letters and paperwork on trips to Canberra each month for his meetings with the Commonwealth Art Advisory Board.

In London in 1960, Dridan and Humphries connected through a letter introduction from a mutual friend. As a young artist, Dridan had won a coveted grant from the British Council to study painting conservation and gallery administration at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1960-61. Barry was in London performing his one-man show - with a promising career on stage unfolding before him. Young, rambunctious, and sharp-witted, the pair became fast friends. A contradiction of sorts, equal parts larrikin and refined connoisseurs of the arts and culture London had to offer. In between stage shows and studying at the V & A, the young Humphries and Dridan would meet at Hyde Park to look at art on Sundays, countered by hours of drinking at The Bunch of Grapes pub in Knightsbridge - where Barry's high jinks often led to other punters paying for their drinks.'[1] A couple of evocative portraits included in the collection show their bonding epitomised in a pair of portraits painted later in 1966. One shows a sensitive profile of Dridan (Lot 51), coupled with an effervescent self-portrait of Barry, the composition dominated by a slather of pink paint (Lot 66).

Like Humphries, Dridan possesses an undeniable magnetism and charm that draws people to him. For many years, he ran a popular painting class out of his studio, enjoying the company as much as teaching. Some of the regular painters were quite serious and eventually became full-time artists with successful commercial careers, whereas others were there for the company, wine appreciation, and the conversation. ‘Initially, they were all ‘medicos' that came up Sunday night, bringing a bottle of red with them. John Dutton (Lot 43) came every Sunday with his paints, and he'd put them on the bar, but he never did any painting!'[2] David recalls with glee and a hint of mischief. ‘Barry was a great advantage to that class!' Many of the portraits in this collection by Humphries are of the Sunday night group. Portraiture played a significant role in Humphries's artistic development, and he had a knack for capturing a person's essence.

Whenever Humphries had time, he would visit Dridan in Strathalbyn, a picturesque township south of Adelaide surrounded by rolling hills and farmland. ‘One of the highlights and the things that Barry loved when he got to Australia was going down and painting with David Dridan, Tim Storrier and John Olsen in the Adelaide Hills.'[3] His appearance occasionally caused a stir in the local newspaper, but generally, he was there to rest and relax amongst the company of other artists. ‘Once a year in the later years, Barry always came, with John Olsen and Tim Storrier occasionally - a group of about eight people, including Geoff Wilson and Silvio Apponyi, we'd go out for a week in some area of the country, Coorong or Flinders Ranges.' David recalls these trips with fondness, ‘They were a good bunch. Barry was more of an expressionist; he was quite active in his activities, he'd finished one painting while I'd still be getting mine out.'[4] It was always an entertaining outing, Storrier recalled, ‘We'd just stay in an old house, and every day you'd go out to the estuary and paint among the dunes and long grasses. In reality, nobody really did very much at all. There was a lot of talk, the conversations were very funny, but you never knew where it was going to go with Barry.'[5]

This closely cherished personal collection celebrates the passage of Dridan and Humphries' friendship, a collection of paintings created in good company and with a purity of expression that comes from simply enjoying the moment. David Dridan, at the young age of 92, has lost none of his spirited raconteur, still painting and causing mischief. His boisterous voice booms down the phone line: ‘I'm a firm believer of having art in your life.'[6] Now in an aged care facility, his collection is on loan for people to enjoy, and his room is filled to the brim with recent paintings. Dridan enjoys educating those around him about the importance of colour, art, and music. This is a unique opportunity to acquire artworks that have been cherished within the David Dridan family collection for decades, maintaining their intimate provenance. The collection is a celebration of the shared passion for painting between Dridan and Humphries, reflecting the unique Australian landscapes and the people who inspired them. It encapsulates the joy that art brings to everyday life, highlighting the deep connection between these two remarkable artists and their creative journeys together.

Sarah Garrecht

Footnotes:
1.Belinda Willis, A lifetime's friendship, memorised in paint, SA Life, February 2024, pp.96-100
2. In conversation with David Dridan, September 2025
3. Rowan Dean, The Many Lives of Barry Humphries: A treasury of reminiscences, Wilkinson Publishing, Melbourne, 2023, p.176
4. Dridan (n 2)
5. Dean (n 3) pp. 144-145
6. Dridan (n 2)

  • Condition:
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19 October 2025 14:00 AEDT
Armadale, Australia

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