|
Brett Whiteley Art, Life and the Other Thing Painting |
|
 |
Painting
Title: Art, Life and the Other Thing 1978
Three panels; Babboon is 90.4 x 77.2cm,
Self painting is 230 x 122, and photo self is 31.1 x 31.1 cm - mixed media
Brett Whiteley
Collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia
Famous Australian
artists - Famous
Self Portraits - Male
Portraits - 20th Century painter
About the Art, Life and the Other
Thing Painting
This triptych self portrait by Brett Whiteley won him the
famous Archibald prize in 1978. In that same year Whiteley also won the prestigious
Sulman Prize and the Wynne Prize.
The three panels represent three different
aspects of the artist's self.
In the lower left panel is a baboon that
represents the addicted self of the artist or the "monkey on the back".
The baboon is handcuffed and pinned to the ground with nails. It has its mouth
open, screaming, while a hand in the top left corner of the panel offers him a
syringe of heroin. Brett Whiteley struggled with his drug addiction and eventually
died from it in 1992.
The larger, central panel is a reference to portraiture
and how far reality can be pushed. It also mentions the famous William
Dobell portrait of Joshua Smith that also won the Archibald Prize in 1943.
In the upper right panel is a photo of the artist, which represents the
artist as he actually looks in real life.
|
| |
|
|
| | |
