Provenance

Donald Hamilton Fraser ‘Torah”

Fraser was one of 10 British artists who went to Israel for the 'Israel Observed' project. At the instigation of Helene Marks and with the support of the British Council in Israel the 10 travelled to Israel in 1979 and produced work for a show for The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (1980), touring to The Mall Galleries, London (1981) and The Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester (1981).

Fraser struggled with this commission, and the works which resulted are in many ways different from the seascapes, castles etc which he is usually associated with. He made a clear statement explaining why. In a nutshell, he was forced, to a greater extent that before, to consider the social landscape, not just the visual one. This is not normally a dimension we associate with Fraser.

In the catalogue for Israel Observed he writes:

"I came here [to Israel] confident that as a landscape painter I was going to find beautiful images out of which I would make my paintings. Now I find that simply making beautiful pictures - and, of course, I still hope to do that - is not enough. Perhap for the first time in my life as an artist I am having to think in terms of a different sort of painting that will formulate the social reality that interests me so"

Revd Dr Stephen Laird FSA FHEA
University Chaplain and Associate Lecturer, University of Kent