Painter and teacher who was born in Warsaw, Poland where he studied German, French, violin and art at school. He then studied at the Warsaw School of Applied Arts and went to Paris in 1922 where he met Marc Chagall. Froudist then went to Berlin where he studied at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts until 1924. He admired Kokoschka, Chagall, Picasso, Klee and Kandinsky. His teachers included Alexander Archipenko for drawing and modelling and Max Liebermann for painting.
On his return to Poland he was a freelance artist. Froudist joined the Polish army in 1939 and was captured by the Russians who released him to fight against the Germans and he was sent to Iraq and Iran. In 1942 he was discharged as medically unfit and stayed in Iran where he taught art painted for the Shah of Persia as it was then called. He married one of his students and moved to India and then Uganda where he taught and then to England where he also taught before immigrating to Western Australia in 1952.
Froudist taught in the Summer Schools at University of Western Australia and became art master at Fremantle Boys and John Curtin High School where he made quite a name as a teacher. He taught adult education classes from 1957 in a studio upstairs on the corner of Hay and Milligan Street. John Birman, the head of Adult Education wrote of him, “His unassuming manner and unlimited patience endeared him to all who came in contact with him and his influence had a lasting effect. A significant feature of his work was that in his advanced classes he attracted not only serious amateurs but a considerable number of practising artists and art teachers.” These included Tom Higgins, Cliff Jones, Miriam Stannage, Brian Simmonds, John Wilson, Marlene Page-Sorrin and Dorothy Erickson.
- Writers:
- Dr Dorothy Erickson
- Date written:
- 2010
- Last updated:
- 2011
