Bert Flugelman

Herbert Flugelman AM (28 January 1923 – 26 February 2013), usually known as Bert, was a prominent Australian visual artist, primarily a sculptor, who had many of his works publicly displayed.

Among his best-known works are the "Mall's Balls" in Adelaide, and "the Silver Shish Kebab" (Pyramid Tower) in Sydney.

He met Annie in Genoa, Italy, where in 1938 they boarded a boat to Fremantle, Western Australia, before travelling to Sydney.

Herbert's mother Irma also escaped Australia, initially to London and then moving to the United States after the war, where she remarried.

In 1991, he was made professorial fellow at the university, and in 1995 received an honorary Doctorate of Creative Art (Honoris Causa).

It was written by Emeritus Professor Peter Pinson (whose Sydney art gallery represented Flugelman), with photography by David Perry.

[1] He experimented with a variety of materials, including ceramics, fibreglass, and aluminium, but his preferred medium was stainless steel, which he felt linked to the environment because of its reflectiveness.

Most of the first members of SAW were ex-graduate students direct from the SA School of Art (Sculpture Dept) who completed their studies in 1977.

After being heavily criticised by Sydney Lord Mayor Frank Sartor, the sculpture was moved to the corner of Spring and Pitt Streets.

[1][2] Another work which attracted press coverage was his satirical sculptural portrait of British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, created accidentally when sawing wood with a chainsaw when he was living in a rainforest near Kiama, south of Sydney.

[2] Max Cullen wrote in 2002:[16]Much of Flugelman's work can be seen as a triumph of the human spirit — the dignified complex aspect that makes us feel good about ourselves.

His gigantic Boule, a salute to the popular French sport, is testimony that art can be pure fun.Flugelman died on 26 February 2013 at his home in Bowral, on the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

It owed a good deal to his ability to conjure large and surprisingly popular works of public sculpture out of an intractable material".