Master of his domain Nov 29, 2008
" Not that it has been all plain sailing since. In recent weeks, he's had to head off criticism of his decision to sell two works, a Brett Whiteley and a John Perceval, to help fund the Cezanne. He was once sued when he described a portrait of Rene Rivkin by the artist Vladas Meskenas as "yuk" and "a rotten picture" that looked like it had been painted with chewing gum. Arguably his darkest hour was two years ago with the theft of a self-portrait by Dutch master Frans van Mieris, which has still... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Art buyers shake off economic gloom Nov 26, 2008
The first one was Brett Whiteley's Balmoral Beach which sold at auction in Melbourne for close to $1-million ... AUCTIONEER 1: The Brett Whiteley of Balmoral, we'll start here straight away at $575,000 ... AUCTIONEER 1: At $825,000 for Brett Whiteley's Balmoral and selling, congratulations. (ABC Online)
Whiteley at a discount adds a few bob to Cezanne fund Nov 25, 2008
THE art auction house Sotheby's posted a poor result last night with the sale of a Brett Whiteley painting one of the few highlights. Whiteley's vast canvas Balmoral, painted in the 1970s, sold for $990,000 including commissions. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Whiteley given brush-off to help pay for a Cezanne Nov 23, 2008
the works by Brett Whiteley (pictured) and John Perceval are being sold to help pay for the Cezanne ... Brett Whiteley's sister, Frannie Hopkirk ... Brett Whiteley's Balmoral and John Perceval's Pleasure Craft will go under the hammer in Melbourne tomorrow to meet a shortfall in the December payment for Bords De La Marne, a $16. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Culture vultures snap up bargains Sep 25, 2008
"It's not uncommon to see a tradesman take away a Brett Whiteley in the back of his ute," Dwyer says. What's given more fuel to this pattern has been the slump in equity markets over the past year, prompting some people to hide some of their money from the bear market in alternative investments. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Lyrical landscape wins trip to Paris Sep 18, 2008
A MELBOURNE artist with an eye for the lyrical in rural landscapes has won the $25,000 Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship ... "And funnily enough, Brett Whiteley has also been there. So that's a nice bit of synchronicity." ... Brett Whiteley's mother, Beryl, instigated the award 10 years ago to help emerging Australian artists aged between 20 and 30 to extend their experience by spending time in Europe. (The Australian)
The royalty treatment Sep 16, 2008
"Tim Storrier, Jeffrey Smart and the estate of Brett Whiteley," the Sydney art dealer Vasili Kaliman says. "Artists doing well at auction tend to do well on the commercial market anyway.". (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Wild scenes at glimpse of what's on offer Aug 22, 2008
But only Sotheby's has Brett Whiteley at his wildest. The artist's Glimpse Of Eden, with an estimate of up to $500,000, comes in a glass case to help contain the organic matter - as well as the vivid green/blue/yellow paintwork. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Artists to be paid for every sale, forever more Aug 9, 2008
For some artists, particularly big names such as the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Brett Whiteley, whose work has sold for record prices since their deaths, the scheme will generate large sums of money as their paintings are sold again and again on the secondary market. The Government committed itself to the resale royalty yesterday as part of its response to last year's senate inquiry into the indigenous art market. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
$6.9m Picasso an Australian record Jun 19, 2008
48 million, paid for a work last year by the late Australian painter Brett Whiteley. - With REUTERS. (The Age)
Picasso's lady to put us on art map Jun 15, 2008
With an estimated value of between $5million and $7million, the painting could blitz the current record, which was for a Brett Whiteley painting, The Olgas For Ernest Giles, sold for $3. 48 million last year. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
A muse's job is to penetrate the male artist and bring forth a work from the womb of his mind Jun 2, 2008
Since then, artists as different as Rubens, Bonnard, Renoir, Charles Blackman and Brett Whiteley have painted their wives over and over again, but their wives were their subjects rather than their muses. One 20th-century wife who could claim the title of muse is Sandra Fisher, wife of RB Kitaj, not because of the role she played in life, but because of the role she played in Kitaj's intellectual life after her untimely death. (Guardian Unlimited -- Arts)
Room with view becomes master stroke May 27, 2008
Six-year-old Elise so impressed her class with tales of her abstract artist grandmother, who has met Brett Whiteley and drives a manual Porsche, that "it was almost as if it was true," she later told her nanny. "Well, it was," Somerset, 70, reminded her granddaughter. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Shades of blue May 27, 2008
Photos - Sydney artist Patti Somerset - smh. Artist Patti Somerset. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Backdown on medical services Apr 3, 2008
Liberal health spokesman Brett Whiteley said the Government should stop playing politics with the health and wellbeing of West Coast communities. Greens Member for Lyons Tim Morris said Ms Giddings was starting to understand that last year's downgrading of the Rosebery hospital was inappropriate. (The Mercury)
Picture this Feb 23, 2008
Or the relationship between Wendy and Brett Whiteley. His ex-wife is the first to raise it when Phillips asks if she still has the hand mirror that Brett held to reflect his face - and this very room - in Self-Portrait In The Studio. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Why you can't have a popular suicide spot Feb 12, 2008
A Sidney Nolan and a Brett Whiteley painting can demonstrate the rules by actually subverting them. The subversion is always a knowing, witty one. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
What lies beneath Dec 30, 2007
Under wraps the art gallery's Emma Smith with Brett Whiteley's Balmoral Beach ... MILLIONS of dollars in artworks, including paintings by Australian greats Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton and Brett Whiteley, are buried in the basement of the state's premier gallery ... Under wraps … the art gallery's Emma Smith with Brett Whiteley's Balmoral Beach. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Hart's son looks good on paper Dec 18, 2007
The new space will be more about Pro and less about the works of the many other artists - such as Brett Whiteley, Arthur Boyd, Norman Lindsay and William Dobell - that he collected over 50 years and have dominated the gallery until now. "When [people] come to Broken Hill, they want to see Pro, his art, his life," John says. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Nude Ned is sure to get a nod Dec 11, 2007
There are works by Brett Whiteley, Jeffrey Smart, John Olsen and Lloyd Rees. Alice Amongst Flowers, one of Charles Blackman's Alice In Wonderland series, is likely to sell for between $350,000 and $530,000. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Menzies outbids Sotheby's auctions Dec 3, 2007
With four $1 million-plus paintings - including two by John Brack, one by Brett Whiteley and one by Frederick McCubbin - expected to sell on Wednesday night, the company is confident it will reach its target. This year has been a big one for Australia's art auction industry. (The Australian)
Tributes flow for the 'guardian angel' Nov 19, 2007
Daniel Thomas, a former director of the Art Gallery of South Australia and a former leading figure at the National Gallery and the Art Gallery of NSW, met Stretton as a political adviser and later he and Wendy Whiteley, the widow of Brett Whiteley, were interviewed by her. "The two of us found her a good and sympathetic interviewer of difficult people - like me and Wendy Whiteley! She was very good at getting things out of people. Call it seduction - journalistic seduction.". (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
It's playtime again for the big names Oct 13, 2007
According to a formula apparently set in concrete, each will need a significant Brett Whiteley and a Fred Williams plus a sprinkling of Brackses, Boyds, Smarts and other big names ... 5 metres John Olsen, Dutton Island, at about $500,000, Arthur Streeton's Sydney Harbour at $200,000-plus and Brett Whiteley's Study for Kingfisher at $250,000-plus. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Art royalties aren't rocket science Oct 11, 2007
Another important fact to know is that over the same period the auction market's traditional sale items - quality works by Australian colonial masters and a handful of modernist painters including Charles Blackman, Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley - began to dry up. Indigenous art was the massive growth area, followed closely by the work of contemporary artists. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
Society poorer when it's sneers all round Oct 6, 2007
The dark night has often been explored in literature, by Tolstoy and Hermann Hesse, for example, and in art by painters such as Brett Whiteley. For many the process is frightening because it means letting go of the ego's control over one's life, including opening oneself up to dark forces. (Sydney Morning Herald -- World)
Early Whiteley defies slowdown Aug 30, 2007
A 1968 Brett Whiteley painting of 19th century Dutch impressionist Vincent van Gogh sold for $1 ... Brett Whiteley's Vincent 1968 went for $1. (The Australian)
Rich pickings from a mother lode of tales Aug 13, 2007
The town, lost in central NSW, spawned Russell Drysdale's barren style and inspired in Brett Whiteley his first great painting. As in its mining days, its art was a boys' club of harsh browns and bold characters. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Brack, the anxious man as reluctant art star Aug 10, 2007
If Brett Whiteley defines Sydney, John Brack is his Melbourne counterpart, a painter whose work celebrates the city's living-room culture, writes Erik Jensen ... In Desmond's mind, Sydney has Brett Whiteley and Melbourne has Brack. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
You've seen the Brett Whiteley painting, now read the book Jun 23, 2007
BRETT WHITELEY'S The Olgas for Ernest Giles might be the toast of auctioneer Deutscher-Menzies after setting an all-time art auction record of $3 ... It's meant as a tribute to the great explorer Ernest Giles, but Victorian-era Englishmen who had endured great hardship to accurately map and describe alien terrain - and in some cases record it in ink and watercolour - probably wouldn't have been impressed by Brett Whiteley's vision of the Olgas as rubbery figures, modelled as the bums, breasts... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Art heist overshadows Whiteley record Jun 16, 2007
The theft took the gloss off a new record for an Australian art auction, with a Brett Whiteley painting selling for $3. 48 million last night. (The Australian)
Whiteley rocks market with record price Jun 14, 2007
ART collectors continued their love affair with Brett Whiteley last night setting a record price for the artist's erotic depiction of the Olgas. Whiteley's The Olgas for Ernest Giles became the most expensive Australian painting sold at auction when it was snapped up for $3. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Art dealer tight-lipped on identity of Whiteley buyer Jun 14, 2007
A Melbourne art dealer will not reveal who paid the record price for a painting by the late Brett Whiteley. The painting, The Olgas for Ernest Giles, was sold for $3. (ABC Online)
Whiteley's 'sexual' landscape garners record price Jun 14, 2007
The Olgas, by the late Brett Whiteley (Courtesy the Artist) ... A painting by the late Brett Whiteley has been sold at auction for almost $3 ... In Sydney last night, artwork by Brett Whiteley was sold at auction for nearly $3. (ABC News Online, Australia -- Arts)
Finally it's quality, not quantity, that's recognised May 11, 2007
JOHN BRACK may not be as famous as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd or even Brett Whiteley, but with Monday night's sale of The Old Time (1969), for $3. 36 million at Sotheby's, he is now responsible for the two highest prices paid for an Australian painting. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Price is almost right May 10, 2007
" While art auctioneers regularly quote the three Ds - divorce, debt and death - as catalysts to selling, generational changeover of collections is stepping up. In the 1960s and '70s, commercial galleries sprang up in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, and new collectors - usually under 40 - became keen supporters of contemporary artists such as Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, Fred Williams, John Brack, Jeffrey Smart, Brett Whiteley and so on. In 2007, those original owners are now in... (The Australian)
Paintings break auction records May 9, 2007
Opera House by Brett Whiteley (Photo: Getty Images) ... "It's very rare indeed to get the opportunity to buy a Brett Whiteley of this magnitude," he said. (ABC Online)
South of the border, pomo rules May 9, 2007
The real difference is attitudinal, as captured by comparing our two favourite junkie-artist sons: Sydney's Brett Whiteley and Melbourne's Howard Arkley. It's not just the contrast between Whiteley's sexualised nature-scapes and Arkley's starched fluoro suburbia, but a polar difference in how their works are read. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
Brack painting breaks record May 8, 2007
The Brett Whiteley painting Opera House was tipped to break the $3 million sales record, but fell short by $600,000 ... "It's very rare indeed to get the opportunity to buy a Brett Whiteley of this magnitude," he said ... "Certainly Brett Whiteleys do come to auction on a regular basis, but this was a particularly special painting because it had never been to market before.". (ABC News Online, Australia -- Top Stories)
Whiteley painting sells for record price May 7, 2007
Opera House attracted the highest bid for a Brett Whiteley painting ever ... Brett Whiteley's Opera House painting sold in Sydney tonight for a record $2. (ABC News Online, Australia -- Arts)
Record sale expected for Whiteley's 'Opera House' May 7, 2007
Opera House, by Australian artist Brett Whiteley, is expected to break records at an auction in Sydney tonight ... It took Brett Whiteley more than a decade to paint his impression of the Opera House. (ABC News Online, Australia)
Opera House tipped to fetch $3m Apr 27, 2007
WHEN Brett Whiteley traded Opera House for a multi-trip ticket on Qantas, he thought it a contra deal well done ... Top deal: Georgina Pemberton with Brett Whiteley's Opera House, which Whiteley traded for an airline ticket, is expected to fetch $3m at auction. (Melbourne Herald Sun)
Qantas' Whiteley a tip to beat record Apr 27, 2007
John Brack's The Old Time (left) and Brett Whiteley's Opera House are on display at Sotheby's in Melbourne ahead of next month's Australian art auction in Sydney ... IT HAS been a week of record-setting art auction results and leading auction house Sotheby's will be counting on the spell to continue when Opera House by the late and hard-living Brett Whiteley goes under the hammer in Sydney in a fortnight ... John Brack's The Old Time (left) and Brett Whiteley's Opera House are on display at... (The Age)
Emotions still raw as tumultuous site goes free Apr 19, 2007
"I love coming here, but occasionally I see something and think, 'You bastard'" Wendy Whiteley, the former wife of artist Brett Whiteley, at his old studio in Surry Hills. Photo: Sahlan Hayes. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Fees out of frame sits well with Whiteley widow Apr 19, 2007
THE Brett Whiteley Studio, one of the nation's smaller, more atmospheric museums, has scrapped admission fees as part of a drive to reveal Australia's cultural heritage to the widest possible audience. The move, which means the Sydney studio forgoes $7 whenever anyone crosses the threshold, is seen as central to the debate over free access to some of the nation's finest art collections. (The Australian)
Whiteley studio free for all Apr 18, 2007
Detail from a Brett Whiteley self portrait exhibited at his studio in Surry Hills ... The Brett Whiteley Studio at Surry Hills in Sydney will stop charging an entry fee from Saturday ... "The Whiteley Studio is now firmly imprinted on everybody's mind as one of those place to go. And to feel, in a sense, the personality, the activity, the character of a wonderful, mercurial being that was Brett Whiteley.". (ABC News Online, Australia)
Blue blood and scarlet women mix at Bonhams Apr 14, 2007
The catalogue offers a nod to the media - it discloses that an "international journalist" is the source of the ubiquitous Brett Whiteley offset litho print The Arrival, part of a 1988 commemoration issue by Time magazine. It even has a bit of blue blood, with Elioth Gruner's In Parramatta Park described as "property of a noblewoman, UK". (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Drawn in by a rural myth Mar 31, 2007
A Brett Whiteley harbour view. Too Sydney. (The Age)
'I still have 1500 paintings to do' Mar 24, 2007
As a young man, Johnson went on weekend painting forays into the bush with his close friend Brett Whiteley, best man at his wedding years later. In London in the 1960s, he fell under the spell of Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and others from the assertive American vanguard, yet he feels an affinity with "limp-wristed" artists such as Degas, Mary Cassat and Milton Avery. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
The hot seat: Ben Quilty Mar 18, 2007
When Quilty won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2002, Barry Pearce, the head curator of Australian art at the Art Gallery of NSW, labelled him "the knight in shining armour" for the future of Australian painting ... " Quilty does not consider himself a portraitist, though he is a regular Archibald finalist. His painting of Beryl Whiteley, the mother of the late Brett Whiteley and founder and patron of the travelling art scholarship, was selected in 2005; his striking diptych of... (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Mystery buyer nabs Whiteley for $1.5m Mar 14, 2007
5 million for a Brett Whiteley painting. Just moments after a phone bidder secured Russell Drysdale's Red Landscape for $1. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Entertainment)
Whiteley, Drysdale paintings fetch millions Mar 14, 2007
Paintings by Australian artists Brett Whiteley and Russell Drysdale have fetched more than $1 million each at an auction in Sydney tonight. Brett Whiteley's View from the Sitting Room Window, Lavender Bay was painted in 1991 - a year before he died - and sold for $1 ... "The Brett Whiteley which we sold was actually owned by our chairman, Rod Menzies," Mr Newstead said. (ABC News Online, Australia -- Arts)
Get ready for the battle of the Whiteleys Feb 24, 2007
In the front line are two giant paintings of the harbour by Brett Whiteley, one of them painted in the early 1990s shortly before the death of the troubled artist whose works remain close to the top of the art market tree. Deutscher-Menzies gets to fire its broadcast first. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Boyd's allegory on poverty rises again Feb 3, 2007
Other major works at Lawsons include the luridly coloured John Brack Adagio, and a cumbersomely titled Brett Whiteley abstract, Study for Autumn (Near Bathurst) - Japanese Autumn. John Olsen's Self Portrait (The Afternoon Walk, Dunmoochin), though not one of his nicest works, is also tagged as a possible $100,000 offering. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Business)
Nothing secret for shooting star Jan 25, 2007
PS hears she snapped up pieces by Brett Whiteley and Richard Allan, which are destined to grace the walls of her new London apartment. She told dealers the flat would be dedicated to Australian art. (Sydney Morning Herald -- Opinion)
