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Howard Taylor
Major 20C WA artist Howard Taylor was commissioned to make a number of works for the Fremantle Port Authority. The two shown here are in Fremantle Ports building. There are also large friezes of flora and fauna in the Passenger Terminal building.
A mosaic mural on the western wall of the ground floor foyer is entitled Portunas after the Roman god of ports and harbours. Originally, this deity protected keys and doors but his guardian function changed to ensuring a safe return for seafarers. The mural describes the patterns of water movement and depicts the well-known story of the boy who rode a dolphin to guide ships into harbour. The presence of bottlenose dolphins in the Inner Harbour and their often observed habit of escorting ships in and out of port, adds to the appropriateness of theme. 
Fremantle Ports image and text. Taylor has 'signed' the work in tiles, at the bottom left.
Also by Howard Taylor is a full mural on the eastern wall of what was originally a meeting room and is now used as a staff lunch room. This work is a sinusoidal projection of the world incorporating 53 images of ships which have a place in the history of Western Australia. The earliest is Dirk Hartog’s D’Eendracht which visited in 1616. Fremantle Ports image and text.
References and Links
Snell, Ted 1991, Arthur Russell in Retrospect, University of Western Australian Press.
Snell, Ted 1995, Howard Taylor - Forest Figure, Fremantle Arts Centre Press, Fremantle.
Wikipedia page for Howard Taylor
Galerie Düsseldorf HT pages
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 4 March, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/arts/artists/taylor/index.html (it was last updated on 6 December, 2022), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.