Tom FANTL

b. Czech Republic, 1947

Untitled 1981

colour litograph

2021.58

Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program

by Anouk Hulme in memory of Etta and Emmanuel Hirsh, 2021

About the artist and their work:

Born in 1947 in Prague, in the former Czechoslovakia, Fantl arrived in Melbourne as a two-year-old. After his schooling Fantl attended the Prahran College of Advanced Education from 1967-70 studying painting and printmaking. After graduating he held early exhibitions at Levenson’s Gallery which were highly successful, and the National Gallery of Australia acquired a number of his early works from this period. Fantl taught life drawing at Prahran before beginning his various travels. He was based in Antwerp, Brussels from 1972 and lived in London in the mid-1970s working as an assistant to Sir Henry Moore. Throughout the 1980s and 90s Fantl lived and worked in Melbourne as a teacher whilst travelling regularly. He was lecturer in art at Swinburne University of Technology from 2009 -2011. His most recent exhibition in Melbourne was at Mars Gallery, Port Melbourne in 2011 and the following year he completed a residency and exhibition in Beijing. He is currently based in Prague and continues to make paintings and collages.