Brett Whiteley: Interiors
All you need is one big room with kitchens and bathrooms off it, and one big room to sleep, cry and make love in
Brett Whiteley speaking with journalist Frances Kelly, 1975
Interiors � whether in London, France, New York or Sydney � were important to Brett Whiteley, not only as places in which to live and work, but also as raw material for his imagination. Now the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills �the artist�s last home and studio before his death in 1992 � hosts a new exhibition, Brett Whiteley Interiors, which shows the influence his immediate physical environment had on his art.
Forty paintings and drawings, as well as sculptures, ceramics and photographs have been selected by Barry Pearce, head curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and Wendy Whiteley from the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Whiteley Estate.
A number of the works were painted at 13 Pembridge Crescent, W11 London, an old Victorian house where Brett Whiteley lived in a flat with his wife Wendy between 1962 and 1963. These works show intimate glimpses of bathrooms with nudes, and include the painting Woman in bath 1964, recently purchased for the Art Gallery of New South Wales by the Art Gallery Society.
Following their return to Sydney in late 1969, the Whiteleys set up house in Lavender Bay where Whiteley painted such familiar icons as the winner of the 1976 Archibald Prize, Self portrait in the studio, 1976. It was also where he painted the haunted portrait of his close friend, Melbourne artist Joel Elenberg, Portrait of Joel Elenberg, 1980, who was dying of cancer.
Images in this exhibition reflect people, things and spaces to which Brett Whiteley felt a particularly close affinity. They are an essential part of the repertoire which defines him as a major Australian artist.
The Brett Whiteley Studio is managed by the Art Gallery of New South Wales
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| On view: | Brett Whiteley Studio
2 Raper Street
Surry Hills | | Telephone: | (02) 9225 1744 or recorded information
(02) 9225 1790
| | Hours: | Saturdays and Sundays only
10am to 4pm | | Admission: | $7 adults / $5 concessions | | Media Information and Interviews: | Jan Batten
Press Office
telephone 61 2 9233 1213
email janb@ag.nsw.gov.au |
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