The Art of War

The present work is a study for The Earth Imagined by Martians, 1977 (National Gallery of Australia, Canberra), one of the largest works on paper ever made by Friend. 'In late January 1977 Friend recorded that he had been working every day on the [NGA] picture, and that when he ran dry of ideas of it, concentrated on smaller related compositions. ... on 20 April [he] pronounced in his diary it was finished. ... it was shown in October at the Australian Galleries in Melbourne, together with related studies and smaller compositions.' (B. Pearce, Donald Friend 1915-1989 Retrospective, Singapore, 1990, p.116)