Brett whiteley front of surry hills gallery

Brett Whiteley AO (7 April 1939 – 15 June 1992) was an Australian artist. He is represented in the collections of all the large Australian galleries, and was twice winner of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes. He held many exhibitions, and lived and painted in Australia as well as Italy, the United Kingdom, Fiji and the United States.

Early years

Growing up in , a suburb of Sydney, Whiteley was educated at

The Scots School, Bathurst Scots All Saints College is a multi-campus independent school, independent Presbyterian Church of Australia in New South Wales, Presbyterian Church Mixed-sex education, co-educational Pre-school education, early learning, Primary school, prima ...

and

The Scots College The Scots College is an independent primary and secondary Day school, day and Boarding school, boarding school for boys, predominantly located in , an Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), eastern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is affiliat ...

, Bellevue Hill. He started drawing at a very early age. While he was a teenager, he painted on weekends in the Central West of New South Wales and

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

with such works as ''The soup kitchen'' (1958). Throughout 1956 to 1959 at the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts ...

in East Sydney, Whiteley attended drawing classes. While still at school, Whiteley visited the Macquarie galleries and saw a one-man exhibition of the work of the landscape artist

Lloyd Rees Lloyd Frederic Rees (17 March 18952 December 1988) was an Australian landscape Painting, painter who twice won the Wynne Prize for his landscape paintings. Most of Rees's works are preoccupied with depicting the effects of light and emphasis ...

. Much later, in 1988, Whiteley wrote to Rees, who had been his friend and mentor for many years. He recalled landscapes that As a result of this encounter with Rees's work, Whiteley was able to meet Rees and join an evening sketch group organised by John Santry.Klepac, Lou. "Affinities: Brett Whiteley and Lloyd Rees", Brett Whiteley Studio, 2001. (exhibition 10 February-8 July 2001) In 1959, he won an art scholarship sponsored by the Italian government and judged by

Russell Drysdale Sir George Russell Drysdale (7 February 1912 – 29 June 1981), also known as Tass Drysdale, was an Australian artist. He won the prestigious Wynne Prize for ''Sofala (Drysdale), Sofala'' in 1947, and represented Australia at the Venice Biennal ...

. He left Australia for Europe on 23 January 1960.

London

After meeting Bryan Robertson, the director of the

Whitechapel Gallery The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery in Whitechapel on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The original building, designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, opened in 1901 as one of the fi ...

, Whiteley was included in the 1961 group show 'Recent Australian Painting,' where his ''Untitled red painting'' was bought by the

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...

Gallery. He was the youngest living artist to have work purchased by the Tate, a record that still stands. In 1962, Whiteley married Wendy Julius. Their only child, daughter

Arkie Whiteley Arkie Deya Whiteley (6 November 1964 – 19 December 2001) was an Australian actress who appeared in television and film. Early life and education Whiteley's parents were the renowned Australian artist Brett Whiteley and cultural figure Wen ...

, was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in 1964. While in London, Whiteley painted works in several different series: bathing, the zoo and the Christies. His paintings during these years were influenced by the modernist British art of the sixties – particularly the works of William Scott and

Roger Hilton Roger Hilton CBE (1911–1975) was a pioneer of abstract art in post-Second World War Britain. Often associated with the 'middle generation' of St Ives painters – Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon & Bryan Wynter – he spent mu ...

– and were of brownish abstract forms. It was these abstract works which led to him being recognised as an artist, at a time when many other Australian artists were exhibiting in London, but from 1963 he moved away from abstraction towards figuration. His farewell to abstraction, ''Summer at Sigean'', was a record of his honeymoon in France. He painted ''Woman in bath'' (1963) as part of a series of works he was doing of bathroom pictures. It has primarily black on one side and has an image of his wife Wendy in a bathtub, seen from behind. Another in the series was a more abstracted ''Woman in the bath II'', which owed a debt to his yellow and red abstract paintings of the early sixties. In 1964, while in London, Whiteley became fascinated by the murderer John Christie, who had committed murders in the area near where Whiteley was staying in

Ladbroke Grove Ladbroke Grove ( ) is a road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England, which passes through Kensal Green and Notting Hill, running north–south between Harrow Road and Holland Park Avenue. It is also the name of the sur ...

. He painted a series of paintings based on these events, including ''Head of Christie''. Whiteley's intention was to portray the violence of the events, but not to go too far in showing something which people would not want to see. During this time, Whiteley also painted works based on the animals at the

London Zoo London Zoo, previously known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens and sometimes called Regent's Park Zoo, is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828 and was originally intended to be used as a colle ...

, such as ''Two Indonesian giraffes'', which he found sometimes difficult. As he said: "To draw animals, one has to work at white heat because they move so much, and partly because it is sometimes painful to feel what one guesses the animal 'feels' from inside." (Whiteley 1979: 1) Whiteley also made images of the beach, such as his yellowish painting and collage work ''The beach II'', which he painted on a brief visit to Australia before his return to London and his winning of a fellowship to America. Whiteley appears as a character in the book '' Falling Towards England'' by

Clive James Clive James (born Vivian Leopold James; 7 October 1939 – 24 November 2019) was an Australian critic, journalist, broadcaster, writer and lyricist who lived and worked in the United Kingdom from 1962 until his death in 2019.

New York

In 1967, Whiteley won a

Harkness Fellowship The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several co ...

Scholarship to study and work in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. He met other artists and musicians while he lived at the

Hotel Chelsea The Hotel Chelsea (also known as the Chelsea Hotel and the Chelsea) is a hotel at 222 West 23rd Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Built between 1883 and 1884, the hotel was designed by Philip Hubert in a styl ...

, where he befriended musicians

Janis Joplin Janis Lyn Joplin (January 19, 1943 – October 4, 1970) was an American singer and songwriter. One of the most iconic and successful Rock music, rock performers of her era, she was noted for her powerful mezzo-soprano vocals and her "electric" ...

and

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

. His first impression of New York was shown in the painting ''First sensation of New York City'', which showed streets with fast moving vehicles, street signs, hot dog vendors, and tall buildings. The Hotel Chelsea displayed several of Whiteley's paintings from the time he lived there, including ''Portrait of New York'' which was hung behind the reception desk. One way that America influenced him is in the scale of his works. He was very much influenced by the

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world pe ...

at the time and came to believe that if he painted one huge painting which would advocate peace, then the Americans would withdraw their troops from

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. Whiteley became active in the great peace movements of the 1960s, with the protests against America's involvement in the war in Vietnam. The resulting work was called ''The American dream'', an enormous work that used painting and collage and anything else he could find on the 18 wooden panels. It took a great deal of his time and effort, taking about a year of full-time work. It started with a peaceful, dreamlike, serene ocean scene on one side, that worked its way to destruction and chaos in a mass of lighting, red colours and explosions on the other side. It was his comment on the direction the world might be headed and his response to a seemingly pointless war which could end in a

nuclear holocaust A nuclear holocaust, also known as a nuclear apocalypse, nuclear annihilation, nuclear armageddon, or atomic holocaust, is a Futures studies, theoretical scenario where the mass detonation of nuclear weapons causes widespread destruction and radi ...

. Many of the ideas from the work may have come from his experiences with alcohol,

marijuana Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...

and other drugs. He believed that many of his ideas came from these experiences, and he often used drugs as a way of bringing the ideas from his subconscious. He sometimes took more than his body could handle, and had to be admitted to hospital for alcohol poisoning twice. Around him at the Hotel Chelsea, other artists and musicians took heroin, which Whiteley did not take at that time. The painting which was finally produced was made of a fantastic array of elements, including collage, photography and even flashing lights, with a total length of nearly 22 metres. However Marlborough-Gerson, his gallery, refused to show the work, and he was so distraught that he decided to leave New York, and he 'fled' to

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

Appropriations

One image which uses

van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

's style in a unique way is ''The night café'' (1971–72). He took the van Gogh painting and stretched the lines of the room to a single vanishing point, creating an image which appears fast moving and extremely vibrant and dynamic.

''Alchemy''

Part of his work ''Alchemy'' (1972–73) was featured on the cover of the

Dire Straits Dire Straits were a British rock band formed in London in 1977 by Mark Knopfler (lead vocals, lead guitar), David Knopfler (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), John Illsley (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Pick Withers (drums, percussion). Th ...

live album ''

Alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

'' although it had the addition of a guitar with lips held by a hand. Alchemy is the mythical ancient process of turning ordinary compounds into gold. The original painting, done between 1972 and 1973 was composed of many different elements and on 18 wood panels 203 cm × 1615 cm × 9 cm. Reading from left to right, it begins with an exploding sun from a portrait of

Yukio Mishima Kimitake Hiraoka ( , ''Hiraoka Kimitake''; 14 January 192525 November 1970), known by his pen name Yukio Mishima ( , ''Mishima Yukio''), was a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor, model, Shintoist, Ultranationalism (Japan), ultranationalis ...

that Whiteley had started but never completed. The famed author Mishima had committed

seppuku , also known as , is a form of Japanese ritualistic suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honor, but was also practiced by other Japanese people during the Shōwa era (particularly officers near ...

in 1970 and the literary mythology that arose of his apparent final vision of enlightenment in the form of the exploding sun, as he pressed the knife into his body, inspired and became the basis for this work. In terms of media, it used everything from feathers and part of a bird's nest to a glass eye, as well as shell pieces, plugs and brain in a work that becomes a transmutation of sexual organic landscapes and mindscapes. It has been regarded as a self-portrait, a giant outpouring of energy and ideas brought forth over a long period of time. According to art writer Bruce James, the self-conscious inclusion of the austere pronoun 'IT' that also makes up part of the work compacts life, passion, death and faith in a single empowering word and unites the notional wings of an altarpiece to nascent addiction.

Sydney Harbour and landscapes

Whiteley loved painting

Sydney Harbour Port Jackson, commonly known as Sydney Harbour, is a ria, natural harbour on the east coast of Australia, around which Sydney was built. It consists of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove River, Lane ...

views in the 1970s such as in his paintings, '' Henri's Armchair'' (1974) ''The balcony 2'' (1975) and ''Interior with time past'' (1976), which show an interior and exterior view starting with a room that leads through open windows to the harbour full of boats outside. In the latter painting, the table in the front of the room close to the viewer has minutely decorated vases and small objects, while a drawing on the left and a sculpture to the extreme right show how Whiteley often used erotic images in his works. He painted a view of his friend

Patrick White Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was an Australian novelist and playwright who explored themes of religious experience, personal identity and the conflict between visionary individuals and a materialistic, co ...

as a rock or a headland in ''Headland''; White had told Whiteley that in the next life he would like to come back as a rock. Whiteley painted other images of the Australian landscape, including a view of the south coast of New South Wales after it had been raining called ''The South Coast after rain''. He did paintings of the areas around Bathurst,

Oberon Oberon () is a king of the fairy, fairies in Middle Ages, medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', in which he is King of the Fairies and spouse of Titania ...

and

Marulan Marulan is a small town east of the Great Dividing Range and is located in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales, Australia. It is in the Goulburn Mulwaree Council local government area and the traditional lands of the Gundungurra people. It ...

, all in New South Wales. He soon settled in

Lavender Bay Lavender Bay is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore (Sydney), North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Lavender Bay is located three kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the Local government in Austral ...

. He painted abstracted images of bush scenes such as ''The bush'' (1966) and also images which resulted from experimentation with various drugs, such as alcohol in the humorous ''Self portrait after three bottles of wine'' (1971).

Archibald and other prizes

In the late 1970s, Brett Whiteley won the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes several times. These are amongst the most prestigious art prizes in Australia. The competitions are run annually, with the award ceremonies being held at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

. Whiteley's awards were: *1976 **Archibald Prize: ''Self portrait in the studio'' **Sulman Prize: ''Interior with time past'' *1977 **Wynne Prize: ''The Jacaranda tree (On Sydney Harbour)'' *1978 **Archibald Prize: '' Art, Life and the other thing'' **Sulman Prize: ''Yellow nude'' **Wynne Prize: '' Summer at Carcoar'' 1978 was the only year in which all three prizes have been won simultaneously by the same person. His first Archibald award, ''Self portrait in the studio'', in deep bluish tones, shows an image of his studio at Lavender Bay overlooking Sydney Harbour, with his own reflection in a mirror shown at the bottom of the picture; a view of Sydney Harbour on the left establishes the location of the picture. Typically, the viewer is led deeper into the picture by means of minute detail. As with other works, there is evidence of Whiteley's love for

Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

, ultramarine blue, the Sydney Harbour location and for collected objects. His second Archibald prize, ''Art, Life and the other thing'', shows his willingness to experiment with different media such as photography and collage. His reference to art history, including an image of the famous 1943

William Dobell Sir William Dobell (24 September 189913 May 1970) was an Australian portrait and landscape artist of the 20th century. Dobell won the Archibald Prize, Australia's premier award for portrait artists on three occasions. The Dobell Prize is named ...

portrait of Joshua Smith, won a court case against accusations that it was a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

, not a portrait. The work experimented with warping and manipulating a straight self-portrait, incorporating his pictorial sense of addiction. He won the Wynne Prize again, in 1984, with ''The South Coast after rain''.

TV documentary

He was the subject of an

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

television documentary called ''Difficult Pleasure'' directed by Don Featherstone in 1989, which showed him talking about many of his main works, and his recent works such as ones done during a month-long trip to Paris; one of his last overseas trips. He also showed his large T-shirt collection, and talks about his sculpture, which he said is an aspect of his work that many people do not take seriously. ''Difficult pleasure'' is how he described painting, or creating art stating, "Painting is an argument between what it looks like and what it means."

Final years

Whiteley became increasingly dependent on alcohol and also became addicted to heroin. His work was not always being praised by critics, although its market value continued to climb. He made several attempts to dry out and get off drugs completely, all ultimately unsuccessful. In 1989, he and

Wendy Wendy is a given name generally given to girls in English-speaking countries. In Britain during the English Civil War in the mid-1600s, a male Captain Wendy Oxford was identified by the Leveller John Lilburne as a spy reporting on his activit ...

, whom he had always credited as his 'muse', divorced. He began a relationship with Janice Spencer, with whom he travelled to Japan, among other countries. He also spent time with friends including

Mark Knopfler Mark Freuder Knopfler OBE (born 12 August 1949) is a British musician. He was the lead guitarist, singer and songwriter of the rock band Dire Straits from 1977 to 1995, and he is the one of the two members who stayed during the band's existence ...

and

John Illsley John Edward Illsley (born 24 June 1949) is an English musician, best known as bassist of the rock band Dire Straits, and he is one of the two members who stayed in the band during the existence, along with the frontman Mark Knopfler. He has re ...

from the band

. In June 1991, Whiteley was appointed an Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honours and awards system, Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarch ...

. On 15 June 1992, aged 53, he was found dead from

opiate An opiate is an alkaloid substance derived from opium (or poppy straw). It differs from the similar term ''opioid'' in that the latter is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain ( ...

overdose in a motel room in

Thirroul Thirroul () is a northern seaside suburb of the city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Wollongong, Australia. Situated between Austinmer, New South Wales, Austinmer and Bulli, New South Wales, Bulli, it is approximately 13 kilometres north of Wo ...

, north of

Wollongong Wollongong ( ; Dharawal: ''Woolyungah'') is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near water' or 'sound ...

. The coroner's verdict was 'death due to self-administered substances'. In 1999, Whiteley's painting ''The Jacaranda tree'' (1977), which had won the Wynne Prize, sold for , a record for a modern Australian painter at that time. Before this, his previous highest-selling work was ''The pond at Bundanon'' for A$. In 2007 his painting ''The Olgas for Ernest Giles'' was sold by

Menzies Menzies is a Scottish surname, with Gaelic forms being Méinnearach and Méinn, and other variant forms being Menigees, Mennes, Mengzes, Menzeys, Mengies, and Minges. Derivation and history The name and its Gaelic form are probably derived f ...

for an Australian record of A$3.5 million. On 7 May 2007, ''Opera House'', (which took Whiteley a decade to paint, and which he exchanged with

Qantas Qantas ( ), formally Qantas Airways Limited, is the flag carrier of Australia, and the largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations in Australia and List of largest airlines in Oceania, Oceania. A foundi ...

for a period of free air travel) sold for A$2.8 million, in Sydney.

Legacy

Whiteley's home and workplace during the last four years of his life at 2 Raper Street in Surry Hills was converted into the Brett Whiteley Studio museum by the

. In 1999, Brett's mother Beryl Whiteley (1917–2010) founded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in memory of her son.

Biography

Sandra McGrath Sandra Burt McGrath is an American-born Australian art writer and historian, an art collector of the avant-garde, and a prominent art critic. A well-traveled and wealthy socialite, McGrath, (née Burt) showed talent in writing and developed pro ...

's 1979 book ''Brett Whiteley,'' dubbed The Blue Book' for its dust jacket featuring the painter's ''The Jacaranda Tree'', was the first major text on the artist. A 1992 updated edition of the Whiteley book, with an interview with the artist that McGrath recorded in 1990 and Whiteley's own thoughts on his art, then being released as a paperback two months after his death, was the subject of a 24 September hearing in the Federal court to examine whether allegedly offensive material infringed copyright as claimed by solicitors for stakeholders in the artist's estate. They also asserted that Whiteley's assent for colour reproduction of his works in the first, hardback edition would not cover the monochrome reprints in the new paperback. The publicity attracted attention, though the publisher's agent Tom Thompson challenged journalist Andrew Main to 'let us know' if he found any 'offensive' passages. Ensnared in the controversy and after the court in October 1992 ordered the withdrawal of the paperbacks, Thompson resigned under pressure from

Angus & Robertson Angus & Robertson (A&R) is a major Australian bookseller, publisher and printer. As book publishers, A&R has contributed substantially to the promotion and development of Australian literature.Alison, Jennifer (2001). "Publishers and editors: A ...

. Crime writer Susan Geason in 1996 considered that:

Sandra McGrath's book – ''Brett Whiteley'' – is as good as you'll get on the paintings, I suspect, and it's a complete mystery why the Whiteley women had the revised edition pulped. Apart from a paragraph or so about the existence of The Mistress, it's totally harmless. Hell hath no fury...

McGrath started to write another, more extensive Whiteley book with interviews of his friends and associates including

before

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

, an imprint of Angus & Robertson, withdrew their interest, while others including

Graeme Blundell Graeme Blundell (born 7 August 1945) is an Australian actor, director, producer, writer, playwright, lyricist and biographer. Early life Blundell was born on 7 April 1945 in Melbourne; he grew up in the suburb of Clifton Hill. He was educated ...

, Blanche d'Alpuget, Frannie Hopkirk, Barry Pierce, and Janice Spencer drafted or published further biographies. In July 2016,

Text Publishing Text Publishing is an Australian publisher of fiction and non-fiction, based in Melbourne, Victoria. Company background Text Media was founded in Melbourne in 1990 by Diana Gribble and Eric Beecher, along with designer Chong Weng Ho and oth ...

published Whiteley's biography, titled ''Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing''. The author, Ashleigh Wilson, was the arts editor of ''

The Australian ''The Australian'', with its Saturday edition ''The Weekend Australian'', is a broadsheet daily newspaper published by News Corp Australia since 14 July 1964. As the only Australian daily newspaper distributed nationally, its readership of b ...

'' newspaper. It was written with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access, and illustrated with classic Brett Whiteley artworks, rare notebook sketches and candid family photographs. The book was longlisted for a

Walkley Book Award The Walkley Book Award is an Australian award presented annually by the Walkley Foundation for excellence in long-form journalism and nonfiction, with subjects ranging from biography to true crime to investigative journalism and reporting. Win ...

and Australian Book Industry Award, and shortlisted for the Australian Book Design Awards and the Mark and Evette Moran Nib Literary Award. An audio version released by Audible in 2016 was narrated by

Mark Seymour Mark Jeremy Seymour (born 26 July 1956) is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. He was the frontman and songwriter of rock band Hunters & Collectors from 1981 until 1998. Seymour has carved a solo career, releasing his debut solo alb ...

. The paperback, featuring a new cover, was released in 2017. On 23 November 2017 the book was named the people's choice winner at the Mark and Evette Moran NIB Literary Award.

Opera

In August 2018,

Opera Australia Opera Australia is the principal opera company in Australia. Based in Sydney, New South Wales, its performance season at the Sydney Opera House accompanied by the Opera Australia Orchestra runs for approximately eight months of the year, with t ...

announced that it had commissioned an

opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...

to be based on the life of Brett Whiteley. The music will be written by

Elena Kats-Chernin Elena Davidovna Kats-Chernin (born 4 November 1957) is an Uzbek-born Australian composer and pianist, best known for her ballet ''Wild Swans''. Early life and education Elena Kats-Chernin was born in Tashkent (now the capital of independent Uz ...

, with a

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

by Justin Fleming. David Freeman will direct and

Tahu Matheson Tahu John Parke Matheson (born 1977) is an Australian classical pianist and conductor. He currently resides in London. Early life Tahu John Parke Matheson was born in London. He is a descendant of the Ngāi Tahu tribe of Te Wai Pounamu. While h ...

will conduct. Ashleigh Wilson, author of Whiteley's biography, is a consultant on the work. It premiered at the

Sydney Opera House The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue Performing arts center, performing arts centre in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Located on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour, it is widely regarded as one of the world's most famous and distinctive b ...

on 15 July 2019.

Film

In 2017, a feature-length biographical documentary about Whiteley was released in Australian cinemas. Directed by

James Bogle James Bogle (born 1959) is an Australian director and writer of films and TV.

and produced by Sue Clothier, ''

Whiteley Whiteley is a planned community of 6,500 homes in the county of Hampshire, England, United Kingdom near Fareham. The development straddles the boundary between two council districts: the Fareham (borough), Borough of Fareham to the south and we ...

'' includes extensive archival footage and photos, personal notes and letters, as well as animations and dramatic reconstructions, although no new interviews were shot for the film. This approach was intended to allow Whiteley to speak "in his own words" about his life and art. The documentary was made with the approval of Wendy Whiteley, and was received with critical acclaim.

Notes

References

External links

Brett Whiteley Studio
– website of the artist's studio in Sydney, Australia, now preserved as a museum. Website includes biographical details and an image gallery.
Brett Whiteley
at the

Brett Whiteley Profile
– Includes a selection of paintings, artist quotations, biography and links to more resources on the artist
Brett Whiteley's friend and colleague George Sheridan webpage
– Includes a selection of paintings done while working with Brett Whiteley *
Brett Whiteley
culture.gov.au {{DEFAULTSORT:Whiteley, Brett 1939 births 1992 deaths Australian bird artists Archibald Prize winners Deaths by heroin overdose in Australia Harkness Fellows People educated at Scots College (Sydney) Wynne Prize winners 20th-century Australian painters Julian Ashton Art School alumni Neo-expressionist artists Artists from Sydney Julius family