Weaver Hawkins

Born 1893 in London, England
Died 1977 in Sydney, Australia

Art Gallery of New South Wales

Atomic power 1947
oil on hardboard
Art Gallery of New South Wales, purchased 1976

Weaver Hawkins was a British artist who served in the First World War and was seriously wounded in the Battle of the Somme at Gommecourt, France, in 1916. Surviving without full use of his right arm, Hawkins retrained as a painter using just his left arm. In 1935, he relocated with his family to Australia, where his work remained under the shadow of war. Critic Daniel Thomas remarked: ‘Allegories of morality for an age of atomic warfare and global over-population had been so uncommon in Australia when painted that most of his fellow artists were embarrassed by his art.’

In Atomic power, Hawkins depicts the destruction of the city as synonymous with the annihilation of all civilisations. A crumbling classical-style tower alludes to the global destruction of the Second World War, while human silhouettes reference the atomisation of human bodies in the Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki. At the centre, a military figure holds an atom in a critical allegory to the weaponisation of science. In the background, two figures – the last man and woman – stumble towards a nuclear horizon. There is no paradise left behind them, and, ahead, growing ever larger, there is only a mushroom cloud.

Weaver Hawkins (1893-1977) was a British artist whose work was deeply influenced by his experiences of military action and subsequent injuries in World War I. Relocating to Australia in 1935, Hawkins created modernist prints and paintings that ranged from new realism to abstraction, capturing everyday scenes with profound emotion and introspection. Whether depicting landscapes, portraits, or daily life, Hawkins displayed an unwavering commitment to portraying the human experience in his art.