Brett Whiteley

Brett Whiteley is one of Australia's most celebrated artists.

Brett Whiteley, AO (7 April 1939 - 15 June 1992) .

He won the Art Gallery of NSW Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes several times.

Whiteley's explosion onto the London art scene gained him almost cult-like fame in Australia where he became enormously popular in the 1970s as a leader of the avant-garde movement.

With an expansive body of work including sculpture, drawings and prints, Whiteley's most popular works are his paintings of which he produced interiors, nudes, still life and landscapes with unquestionable proficiency. His style evolved dramatically during his Europe period, moving from minimal abstract work to figurative, sexually charged and sometimes violent pieces.

The life and times of Brett Whiteley | artgallery.nsw.gov.au

7 April 1939
Born Sydney, Australia. Grew up at 18 Lucretia Avenue, Longueville.

1946
Won first art competition: annual RSPCA exhibition at Farmer's Blaxland Gallery for The driver sits in the shade but what about the horse?

1948
Sent to boarding school at Scots College, Bathurst.

1954
Saw Lloyd Rees's European paintings exhibition at Macquarie Galleries, Sydney. Briefly attended Scots College, Sydney 1954-55.

1956
Awarded first prize, Young Painters' Section, Bathurst Show, New South Wales. Left school mid-year and worked in Sydney for Lintas Advertising Agency in the layout and commercial art department. His mother Beryl Whiteley left Australia for London.

Met Wendy Julius, who was attending the National Art School East Sydney, where Whiteley and Michael Johnson occasionally drew at the life-drawing class.

Between 1956 and 1959: Sometimes attended sketch clubs such as John Santry's sketch club (also frequented by Lloyd Rees) on Thursday nights. Used the glasshouse at his home in Longueville as a studio. Sporadically attended life drawing at Julian Ashton Art School. Painted on weekends around Bathurst, Sofala, Hill End and the south coast of NSW. Painted at Sydney Soup Kitchen and night refuge.

1959
Encouraged by Australian artist William Pidgeon, left Lintas in August to paint works for the Italian scholarship. In November awarded Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship for 1960, judged by Sir Russell Drysdale at the Art Gallery of NSW. Whiteley submitted four paintings: Abstract Autumn, Dixon Street, July and Around Bathurst - the painting for which he was awarded the scholarship.

1960
Arrived in February in Naples. Spent March to May in Rome and Florence. Had an apartment in Rome near the Spanish Steps with his mother, Beryl. Visited Australian sculptor Stephen Walker in Florence, recipient of the same Italian scholarship, and found a studio in the same building as Walker. Brief visits to Paris and London. While in London, took portfolio around galleries and was selected for a group show by McRoberts and Tunnard. On 14 June, met Wendy in Paris and after two weeks returned to Florence studio. 20 July to 1 September exhibited in group show at McRoberts and Tunnard Gallery, London, with Tadashi Sato, Douglas Swan and Philip Weichberger.

Three gouaches were sold for £18 and one was reserved at £9. Travelled throughout Italy, including Siena and Arezzo. Haunted the Uffizi Gallery immersed in work by artists of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly Cimabue, Duccio and Piero della Francesca. In August spent three days in Venice to see the Biennale with Michael Johnson, visiting Morandi in Grizzana.

November
Moved to London - 129 Ladbroke Grove W11 - where Michael Johnson was already living. In December met British painters William Scott and Roger Hilton and other Australian artists then in London, including Arthur Boyd and John Passmore. Met Bryan Robertson director of Whitechapel Gallery. Included in Survey of recent Australian painting at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, from which Untitled red painting was purchased by the Tate Gallery.

1962
Solo exhibition 9 - 31 March, Paintings and gouaches, Matthieson Gallery, London.

Exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and travelled in Holland with Australian artist Lawrence Daws. Exhibited at the Berlin World Fair in the Stuyvesant Collection, then travelled to Baden-Baden, Stuttgart and to Venice for the Biennale.

27 March
Married Wendy Julius at Chelsea Registry Office, London.

April
Travelled until November through Europe with his father, Clem, visiting Rome, Paris, Barcelona and the Haute Pyrenees, where they stayed with American painter George Sheridan. Clem returned to Australia (the last time Whiteley saw his father).

With friend Wendy Paramour, the Whiteleys spent five months in the south of France in old farm houses at Sigean, from where they travelled to Spain and Germany.

October
Travelled to the United States, visiting New York, Connecticut and Washington. Met de Kooning. Returned to London in November and moved into 13 Pembridge Crescent.

1963
Spent six and a half months completing Summer at Sigean. Afterwards commenced the bathroom series. Work selected for Australian painting exhibition at the Tate Gallery, London, and British painting in the '60s, which opened at the Whitechapel Gallery in London before touring Great Britain and Switzerland.

April
In France

3 May
Clem Whiteley died, aged 55.

Australian Group Show, Marlborough Gallery, London. Exhibited with Lawrence Daws, Jack Carrington Smith and Vaughan at The National Gallery of Rhodesia, Africa. 15 November to 22 December exhibited in the Dunn International, Fredericton, Canada, and Tate Galley, London. In December moved to Holman Hunt's old studio at 18A Melbury Road, London.

1964
Awarded International Drawings Prize for Bather and heater (1964), International der Zeichnung, Darmstadt, Germany.

Awarded travel grant from the Stuyvesant Foundation. Awarded Perth Festival Art Prize, Australia. From March to May exhibited in The new generation 1964, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, with Woman in a bath 5 (1963-64), Bather and mirror (1964), Figure at the basin (1963) and Sketch for large mirror painting (1964). From May to June travelled to Deya, Majorca. Three works exhibited in Documenta III, Kassel, Germany: Bather and mirror (1964), Woman washing her face (1964) and Woman sitting on side of bath (1963).

6 November
Daughter Arkie born at St George's Hospital, London.

1965
Exhibited in Australia, France, Belgium and Italy. Treasures from the Commonwealth, Commonwealth Festival Exhibition, Burlington House, London. From June to July travelled to Deya, Majorca. November to December exhibited Untitled dark painting (1963), and Christie and Hectorina McLennan (1964) in The English Eye, Marlborough-Gerson Gallery, New York. Exhibited in group show Marlborough Prints, at Marlborough New London Gallery, London. Awarded TE Wardle Invitation Art Prize, Perth, Australia.

November
Returned to Australia for the summer, staying at Whale Beach, north of Sydney.

1966
In February included in a group show with David Hockney and Arthur Boyd. Exhibited at Clune Galleries, Sydney, with The Zoo Graphics. From 10 March to 16 April exhibition of the Mertz Collection, The Australian Painters 1964 -1966 at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA. Woman in bath (1964), The boxing match (1965), Cheetah in Rillington Place (1964) and Head of Christie (1964). From 6 April to 22 May exhibited in British Graphics at Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Rotterdam. Exhibited in group show Marlborough Graphics, Marlborough New London Gallery, London. Returned to London via Calcutta mid-year. Work selected for exhibition at Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.

1967
Exhibited at Pittsburgh International Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA, and awarded Harkness Foundation Scholarship. May to June travelled in Majorca, Tangier and Madrid before sailing to New York in September. Moved into a penthouse apartment at the Chelsea Hotel. Australian Group Exhibition, Whitechapel Gallery, London.

1969
In July fled New York for Fiji and lived in a bure at Navutuleva, about 45 miles along the coast from Suva. Spent five months in Fiji. Group show at Cunard-Marlborough Gallery (on board the Queen Elizabeth II for its maiden voyage). Fined £F50 in Suva for possession of a drug.

November
Returned to Australia, moving to Lavender Bay, Sydney.

1970
Involved with The Yellow House artists' collective in Potts Point, Sydney, until 1972.

1971
November
Showed in group exhibition, The Bonsai Show, Australian Galleries, Melbourne.

Rented Gasworks studio in Waverton, Sydney.

1972
February
Began work on Alchemy.

Exhibited in Australian painters and tapestries of the past 20 years, New South Wales House, London.

1973
January
Completed Alchemy.

Exhibited Alchemy at Bonython Gallery, Sydney.

June
Travelled to Mauritius and Kenya.

1974
'Moved from alcohol to more serious mind altering chemicals' - quote from interview with Philip Adams.

Exhibited at The World Expo, Spokane, Washington, USA.

1975
Awarded Sir William Anglis Memorial Art Prize, Melbourne. Included in Australian painting exhibition, People's Republic of China.

Moved from Gasworks studio in Waverton to downstairs in Lavender Bay house.

1976
Archibald prize for Self-portrait in the studio (1976). Sir John Sulman Prize for Interior with time past (1976) (genre painting).

1977
Wynne Prize for The jacaranda tree (on Sydney Harbour) (1977).

March - April
In London.

August
Stayed with Joel Elenberg at Arthur Boyd's Italian house, Casa Paletaio, in Pisa.

Travelled to Venice, Florence and Rome.

1978
Archibald Prize for Art, life and the other thing (1978). Wynne Prize for Summer at Carcoar (1977). Sir John Sulman Prize for Yellow nude (1978).

Travelled to Bali in June. Spent August in New Caledonia and back to Bali in September.

Exhibited four works at Cologne International Art Fair.

1979
Joel Elenberg shared studio with Whiteley in Lavender Bay.

1980
June - September
In Bali with Joel Elenberg and his family, Anna and Zahava, until Elenberg's death.

1981
Moved to studio in Reiby Place, Circular Quay.

November
In Vanuatu.

1982
Travelled to Spain Germany, France. Returning to Australia, stopped in Rome to work with Walter Rossi on three etchings at Vigna Antoniniana, Rome.

1984
Awarded Wynne Prize, for South coast after the rain (1984).

July
In London.

1985
March
Travelled to Central Australia with Michael Driscoll and worked on the publication Native rose.

May
Purchased an old T-shirt factory in Surry Hills, Sydney, to convert into a studio.

Travelled to London; Wendy remained in England.

1986
Travelled to India to meet Wendy in Bombay and returned to Australia together.

1987
Travelled to London with Wendy. Wendy remains in London.
Brett starts living at the Surry Hills studio.

1988
Birds exhibition held in Surry Hills studio (5-19 July).

1989
Divorced from Wendy.

May - August
In London and Morocco, spending two months in Paris in an apartment on Rue de Tournon.

Travelled for five weeks in Bali, Tokyo and Kyoto with Janice Spencer. Spent October in Byron Bay, NSW.

1991
10 June
Awarded Order of Australia (General Division).

15 June 1992
Died at Thirroul, NSW.

Collectors warned on 'Whiteley' art

After yet another scandal involving an allegedly fake painting sold as a genuine work by late Australian artist Brett Whiteley, the message is clear: buyer beware.

Whiteley's former wife of 27 years, Wendy Whiteley, is urging art collectors to do their research and check the provenance of artworks to prevent being caught out.

"It's buyer beware,"she said. "Check the history of the work as best as you can, and if there really is doubt, try to get involved with me or other people who know Whiteley's works, such as [Melbourne gallerist] Stuart Purves or [Sydney gallerist] Robin Gibson."

As revealed by The Age yesterday, the work titled Bather and Garden, supposedly created by Whiteley in 1978, is the latest painting to have its authenticity questioned. It was sold as a real Whiteley in 2006 for $1.5 million, but has not been included in the definitive list of the artist's work compiled by Melbourne art historian Kathie Sutherland, due to be published in November.

Wendy Whiteley is advising serious collectors of Whiteley's work to consider buying Ms Sutherland's catalogue raisonne, on which she has collaborated, if they want to be sure about what they are purchasing.

Caution is particularly important when buying artworks through private sales, she says.

Major auction houses need to seek copyright from her before they can publish images of Whiteley works in their catalogues, and they also provide guarantees of authenticity, having to pay back the full price of a work if it's found to be fake (although time limits and conditions apply).

The heads of major auction houses made similar recommendations yesterday.

"We always encourage collectors to look for solid provenance and exhibition history, ideally leading all the way back to the artist,"said Merryn Schriever, director of Bonhams Australia.

"Verification , inclusion in publications , and especially in the artist's catalogue raisonne, is an absolute essential.

"I don't think there has been a lack of confidence in the artist's work but, certainly, collectors expect thorough and complete provenance with substantial documentation."

Bonhams Australia is considering several Whiteley works for auction, Ms Schriever said, but has "very strict guidelines around how we research and catalogue them".

Justin Turner, the chief executive officer of Menzies Art Brands, said when buying art it was crucial to deal with reputable people.

"Buying at auction is probably your safest bet, and I'm not saying that to give auctions a plug. That's just my honest opinion,"he said.

Mr Turner pointed to the suspect Whiteley paintings that were the subject of a Supreme Court of Victoria art fraud trial in 2016, all of which were sold privately.

"Those pictures were sold under the radar,"Mr Turner said.

"They weren't seen by the public, so other people and experts didn't have the chance to see them prior to sale."

The Age Digital Edition: Collectors warned on 'Whiteley' art (2019)