Brett Whiteley facts for kids

Front of the Brett Whiteley gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney

Whiteley's sculpture, Nude (1962)

Brett Whiteley AO (born April 7, 1939 – died June 15, 1992) was a famous Australian artist. His artworks are displayed in all the major Australian art galleries. He won the top art prizes in Australia, including the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman prizes, multiple times. Brett Whiteley held many art shows and lived and painted in Australia, Italy, England, Fiji, and the United States.

Early Life and Art Training

Brett Whiteley grew up in Longueville, a suburb of Sydney. He went to school at The Scots School, Bathurst and The Scots College in Bellevue Hill. He started drawing when he was very young. As a teenager, he spent weekends painting in rural New South Wales and Canberra. One of his early works was The soup kitchen (1958). From 1956 to 1959, Whiteley took drawing classes at the National Art School in East Sydney.

While still in school, Whiteley visited the Macquarie galleries. There, he saw an exhibition by the landscape artist Lloyd Rees. Years later, in 1988, Whiteley wrote to Rees, who had become his friend and mentor. He remembered Rees's landscapes, saying they seemed to show the whole of Europe. They mixed nature with ideas and felt both real and imagined. He said seeing them helped him discover new ways of painting.

Because of this, Whiteley met Rees and joined an evening sketch group. In 1959, he won an art scholarship from the Italian government. The famous artist Russell Drysdale was one of the judges. Whiteley left Australia for Europe on January 23, 1960.

Painting in London

In London, Whiteley met Bryan Robertson, who was the director of the Whitechapel Gallery. Whiteley's painting, Untitled red painting, was bought by the Tate Gallery in 1961. This made him the youngest living artist to have his work bought by the Tate, a record he still holds. In 1962, Whiteley married Wendy Julius. Their only child, Arkie Whiteley, was born in London in 1964.

While in London, Whiteley created several series of paintings. These included works about bathing, the zoo, and true crime events. His early paintings in London were abstract, meaning they used shapes and colors rather than clear pictures. These abstract works, often brownish, helped him become known as an artist. From 1963, he started painting more realistic pictures. His painting Summer at Sigean marked his move away from abstract art. He also painted Woman in bath (1963), which shows his wife Wendy from behind in a bathtub.

In 1964, Whiteley was interested in some crime events happening near where he lived in Ladbroke Grove. He painted a series of works about these events, like Head of Christie. Whiteley wanted to show the feeling of these events without being too graphic. He also painted animals at the London Zoo, such as Two Indonesian giraffes. He found painting animals challenging because they moved so much. He said it was sometimes hard to imagine what the animal felt inside. Whiteley also painted beach scenes, like The beach II, during a short visit to Australia.

New York Adventures

In 1967, Whiteley won a Harkness Fellowship Scholarship. This allowed him to live and work in New York. He stayed at the Hotel Chelsea, a famous place where he met other artists and musicians. He became friends with Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan. His first painting about New York, First sensation of New York City, showed busy streets, fast cars, and tall buildings. The Hotel Chelsea even displayed some of Whiteley's paintings from his time there.

Living in America influenced the size of Whiteley's artworks. He was very inspired by the peace movement of the 1960s. He believed that if he painted one huge artwork for peace, it could help end the Vietnam War. Whiteley became involved in protests against the war. He created an enormous artwork called The American dream. This painting was made of 18 wooden panels and used painting, collage, and other materials. It took him about a year to complete. The painting started with a calm ocean scene on one side. It then changed into a chaotic scene of destruction and explosions on the other. It was his way of commenting on the world's direction and the idea of a pointless war. The final painting was nearly 22 meters long and included collage, photos, and even flashing lights. However, his art gallery, Marlborough-Gerson, refused to show it. Whiteley was very upset and decided to leave New York, moving to Fiji.

Unique Art Styles

Whiteley sometimes used the style of other famous artists in his own unique way. For example, in The night café (1971–72), he took van Gogh's famous painting. Whiteley stretched the lines of the room, making it look fast-moving and very energetic.

Alchemy Artwork

Part of Whiteley's artwork Alchemy (1972–73) was featured on the cover of the Dire Straits live album Alchemy. The album cover added a guitar with lips held by a hand to the original art. Alchemy is an old, mythical process of trying to turn ordinary things into gold. Whiteley's original painting, created between 1972 and 1973, was made of many different parts. It was on 18 wooden panels, each about 203 cm tall and the whole piece was 1615 cm long. Starting from the left, it shows an exploding sun from a portrait of Yukio Mishima that Whiteley had started but not finished.

Sydney Harbour and Landscapes

Almost Once (1991), The Domain, Sydney

Whiteley loved painting views of Sydney Harbour in the 1970s. His paintings like Henri's Armchair (1974), The balcony 2 (1975), and Interior with time past (1976) show both inside a room and the harbour outside through open windows. In Interior with time past, the table in the foreground has tiny, detailed vases and objects. He also painted his friend Patrick White as a rock or headland in Headland. White had told Whiteley he wished to be a rock in his next life.

Whiteley painted other Australian landscapes too. One painting, The South Coast after rain, shows a view of the south coast of New South Wales after it had rained. He also painted areas around Bathurst, Oberon, and Marulan in New South Wales. He later settled in Lavender Bay. He created abstract paintings of bush scenes, like The bush (1966), and a funny one called Self portrait after three bottles of wine (1971).

Winning Art Prizes

In the late 1970s, Brett Whiteley won the Archibald, Wynne, and Sulman prizes several times. These are some of the most important art awards in Australia. The competitions happen every year, and the awards are given out at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Whiteley's awards included:

• 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

The year 1978 was special because it was the only time one person won all three prizes in the same year.

His first Archibald award, Self portrait in the studio, uses deep blue colors. It shows his studio at Lavender Bay with a view of Sydney Harbour. You can see his reflection in a mirror at the bottom of the painting. A view of Sydney Harbour on the left side shows where the picture is set. The painting has many small details that draw the viewer deeper into the artwork. It also shows Whiteley's love for the artist Matisse, ultramarine blue, Sydney Harbour, and his collection of objects.

His second Archibald prize, Art, Life and the other thing, shows how he liked to try different art methods, like photography and collage. This work included a reference to art history, with an image of the famous 1943 portrait of Joshua Smith by William Dobell. This painting was part of a court case, but it was decided it was a portrait, not a caricature. The artwork also experimented with bending and changing a straight self-portrait.

He won the Wynne Prize again in 1984 with his painting The South Coast after rain.

TV Documentary and Later Years

In 1989, an ABC TV documentary called Difficult Pleasure was made about Brett Whiteley. It was directed by Don Featherstone. In the film, Whiteley talked about many of his main artworks and his newer pieces, including some he made during a trip to Paris. He also showed his large T-shirt collection and discussed his sculptures. He said many people didn't take his sculpture work seriously. Whiteley described painting, or creating art, as a "difficult pleasure." He explained, "Painting is an argument between what it looks like and what it means."

Wendy Whiteley's garden in Sydney, where Brett Whiteley's ashes were scattered

Even though the market value of Whiteley's art kept going up, critics didn't always praise his work. In 1989, he and Wendy separated. He had always called Wendy his 'muse' (someone who inspires an artist). He then started a relationship with Janice Spencer and traveled with her to places like Japan. He also spent time with friends, including Mark Knopfler and John Illsley from the band Dire Straits.

In June 1991, Whiteley was given an important award, becoming an Officer of the Order of Australia.

On June 15, 1992, Brett Whiteley was found dead in a motel room in Thirroul, near Wollongong. He was 53 years old.

In 1999, Whiteley's painting The Jacaranda tree (1977), which had won the Wynne Prize, sold for A$1,982,000. This was a record price for a modern Australian painter at that time. Before this, his highest-selling work was The pond at Bundanon for A$649,500. In 2007, his painting The Olgas for Ernest Giles sold for an Australian record of A$3.5 million. On May 7, 2007, Opera House, a painting Whiteley took ten years to create, sold for A$2.8 million in Sydney. He had traded this painting with Qantas for free air travel for a period.

His Legacy

Whiteley's home and art studio in Surry Hills, where he lived for the last four years of his life, was turned into the Brett Whiteley Studio museum by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

In 1999, Brett's mother, Beryl Whiteley (1917–2010), started the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship. This scholarship helps young artists and was created in memory of her son.

Books and Films About Brett Whiteley

In July 2016, Text Publishing released a book about Whiteley called Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing. The author, Ashleigh Wilson, was the arts editor for The Australian newspaper. The book was written with special access to Whiteley's life. It included his classic artworks, rare notebook sketches, and family photos.

The book was nominated for several awards, including a Walkley Book Award. An audio version was released in 2016, read by Mark Seymour. In 2017, the book won the people's choice award at the Mark and Evette Moran NIB Literary Award.

In August 2018, Opera Australia announced they would create an opera based on Brett Whiteley's life. The music was written by Elena Kats-Chernin, and the story (libretto) by Justin Fleming. The opera premiered at the Sydney Opera House on July 15, 2019.

In 2017, a full-length documentary film about Whiteley was released in Australian cinemas. Directed by James Bogle and produced by Sue Clothier, the film Whiteley used many old videos and photos. It also included Whiteley's personal notes and letters, as well as animations. No new interviews were filmed for the movie. This was done so that Whiteley could tell his own story about his life and art. The documentary was approved by Wendy Whiteley and was highly praised by critics.