There’s a party going on at Logan Art Gallery – a Brett Whiteley party.
One doesn’t mean to be too irreverent but Whiteley’s work is so striking and vibrant and the exhibition Brett Whiteley: Inside the Studio does include photos (by William Yang no less) of Whiteley dancing at a party at his studio in Surry Hills in Sydney.
Whiteley loved music and some of his record collection has also travelled from Sydney. A playlist of his music will feature during the life of the exhibition, which runs until September 8.
This travelling exhibition, which highlights Whiteley’s studio practice, is a collaboration between Logan City Council, the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW) and the Brett Whiteley Studio which is operated by AGNSW.
Whiteley’s legacy is still lovingly overseen by his widow, Wendy Whiteley, who was at Logan Art Gallery on the weekend for the opening of the exhibition. Logan Art Gallery is the first stop on a national tour and this is quite the artistic coup. I visited on a quiet Tuesday morning this week, or what is normally a quiet Tuesday morning … but word is getting out and art lovers are making pilgrimages to the show. As they should.
It is bittersweet on the one hand because, as we know, Whiteley died tragically of a heroin overdose at the age of 53. As sad as that is we can celebrate the fact that he was so prolific during his lifetime. This exhibition is very much a celebration of his life and his work and, as I said, it’s a bit of a party.
City of Logan Mayor Jon Raven points out that the show is free, although visitors need to register for a ticket so the gallery is not mobbed. Mind you, I’m assured you won’t be turned away if you don’t have one. Still.
“It’s pretty special that Logan is the only place in Queensland that you’ll be able to see this exhibition,” Cr Raven says. “I’m sure many art lovers will be travelling from around the state to witness this part of history.”
Brett Whiteley: Inside the Studio offers a rare and intimate insight into the world of an artist through the art and life of one of our greatest.
Since 1995 the Brett Whiteley Studio at Sydney’s Surry Hills has operated as a public museum presenting an extraordinary time capsule of Whiteley’s art and life. This preserved world of Whiteley is paint splattered and graffitied and houses objects collected from his artistic travels with books, music and photography. The studio is being renovated, which is why the collection is being toured.
Walking into Logan Art Gallery, one is struck by the vitality and visceral presence of Whiteley’s work, which seems as fresh now as when it was created. The hero piece is a gorgeous and rather well-known work, the 1976 Self-portrait in the studio, also that year’s Archibald Prize winner – a large-scale work in oil and collage with some hair inculcated on the canvas. (There is another work which features a taxidermised platypus on the canvas, if you can believe that.)
Self-portrait in the studio is a major work that exudes a sense of sumptuous living and the liquid presence of Sydney Harbour through what Whiteley called the “ecstasy-like effect” of Windsor and Newton Deep Ultramarine blue oil paint.
There’s a mirror reflecting his visage. Wendy Whiteley has explained that the mirrored reflection in the self-portrait was “warning himself and other people watching”.
“It was the cage of his interior, his addiction, the window or a glimpse of possible escape into paradise, the escape from one’s psyche,” she says.
Whiteley’s mastery is on show here with about 50 works on display, including a few terrific photos of the artist at work and some sculptures and ceramics. His mastery of an almost calligraphic way of painting is on show in a work such as The willow, painted in 1979.
We have just returned from Sydney where we visited Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden (not so secret anymore), just outside their Lavendar Bay home. The harbour views from here are stunning and you can see why Whiteley was in love with painting it.
One of the most stunning works in this show is another of his deep-ultramarine oils, The Balcony 2, painted in 1975 and now part of the AGNSW collection. It encapsulates “key elements of his art – fluent draughtsmanship, erotically charged curvilinear lines and minimal brushstrokes suggestive of figures, forms and patterns found in nature”.
As the gallery notes: “Whiteley’s return to Australia in 1969 after 10 years living and working overseas heralded a new preoccupation with colour and beauty. Principally inspired by Henri Matisse’s The red studio 1911, but also by his Lavendar Bay house on Sydney Harbour’s north shore, he created a series of large-scale paintings of expansive interiors and views evoking the marine beauty of his location.”
If you haven’t visited Wendy Whiteley’s Secret Garden, put it on your list of must-dos because it opens up a new window to understanding Brett Whiteley’s work.
A music lover, Whiteley was heavily influenced by what he liked. There’s a Spotify playlist of his favourites you can listen to as you browse the exhibition. His records will be played at the exhibition from time to time.
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He was deeply interested in rock music as a pop-culture phenomenon and was friendly with people such as U2’s Bono, Eric Clapton of Cream, Mark Knopfler (he did an album cover for Dire Straits) and even Bob Dylan.
There’s an extensive workshop program to complement the exhibition, including DJ sessions, Sunday movie presentations and an artists studio bus tour as well as some up-late sessions, among other things. And did I mention that admission is free?
Brett Whiteley: Inside the Studio continues at Logan Art Gallery until September 8. For the full public program, including the bus tour cost and booking details, go to:
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