Who was the artist Tony Fomison? That's still a contentious question

The strange, shadowy paintings of Tony Fomison (1939-1990) are regarded as some of New Zealand's most significant artworks.

In his new biography Tony Fomison: Life of the Artist, Mark Forman reveals the man who created them as a passionate and driven character who was also a "trickster, addict and disrupter”.

Due to the varying recollections of those who knew the artist, Forman had to leave something very significant out of the book, though - reproductions of Fomison's unique paintings.

You can check out Tony Fomison’s paintings here

Related:

Concerned about possible factual inaccuracies in Tony Fomison, the late artist's three sisters (who represent his estate) withheld consent for his artworks to be reproduced in its pages.

Throughout his life, Tony Fomison was never one to follow fashion, Forman tells Culture 101.

In the early 1970s, when many New Zealand artists were producing colourful abstract works, Fomison instead painted strange shadowy figures in muted tones.

For a Pākeha artist of the time, he was also unusually engaged with Māori and Pacific culture, Forman says.

After finishing art school in Christchurch, Fomison was just 20 when he contributed drawings to a major survey of Māori rock drawings in South Canterbury.

Living in Auckland in the late 70s and early '80s, he developed a strong connection with the Samoan community, even receiving a traditional Samoan pe’a tattoo at the age of 40.

A self-described “working-class painter”, Fomison’s intense work ethic came through very strongly in the memories of his friends, Forman says.

“There was perhaps a self-destructive element to that and yet he kept going. He kept making this art… Somehow he had this inner belief about what he was doing and he stuck to it.”

Mark Forman began researching Fomison's life and interviewing his contemporaries, friends and family members back in 2012.

In Tony Fomison, the artist's wildly contradictory nature - recalled by many of his friends and acquaintances - was something he wanted to make clear.

“He could be this wonderfully generous man, really supportive - and there's plenty of stories of that - but he could also be just a really difficult man to be around.”

Sometimes Fomison was supportive and loving but he could also be fiendish and cruel, his long-time friend Richard McWhannell says in the book.

Others spoke of the painter purposefully misbehaving at what he called ‘posh parties’, Forman says - pocketing cutlery and throwing glasses over his shoulder.

“On the one hand he was an outsider and that's how he thought of himself but he also did everything he could to be an outsider.”

While he respects the Fomison family’s decision to withdraw consent for paintings to be included in Tony Fomison, Forman is confident his book’s depiction of a “man of multitudes” is as accurate as he could make it.

“I wanted the stories told and I wanted to do it as sensitively and respectfully to the family as possible… and people who have read it have said that it is a sensitive, fair and balanced portrayal.

“I hope that when people read the book, they'll get a sense of the complexity of what I was doing and the complexity of who Tony was.”

In 2016, Tony Fomison’s sister Anna Fomison interviewed five of his friends for an oral history project about his life, which you can listen to here.