Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing

by Ashleigh Wilson

When he died in 1992 Brett Whiteley left behind decades of ceaseless activity—some works bound to a particular place or time, others that are masterpieces of light and line.

Whiteley had arrived in Europe in 1960 determined to make an impression. Before long he was the youngest artist to have work acquired by the Tate. With his wife, Wendy, and daughter, Arkie, Whiteley then immersed himself in bohemian New York. But within two years he fled, having failed to break through.

Back in Sydney, he soon became Australia’s most celebrated artist. He won the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes in the same year—his prices soared, as did his fame. Among his friends were Francis Bacon and Patrick White, Billy Connolly and Dire Straits. Yet addiction was taking its toll: Whiteley struggled in vain to separate his talent from his disease, and an inglorious end approached.

Written with unprecedented behind-the-scenes access, and handsomely illustrated with classic Whiteley artworks, rare notebook sketches and candid family photos, this dazzling biography reveals for the first time the full portrait of a mercurial artist.

Genres: Art, Biography, Biography Memoir, Nonfiction

432 pages, Hardcover

Published August 1, 2016

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished: 11.12.2019
Genre: biography
Rating: A+++
#AudioBook
Conclusion:
Australian artist you probably never heard of.
Now here's your chance to learn about his great talent!
Australian Book Industry Awards 2017 shortlist biography
@ABIAs_Awards

My Thoughts

[Text Publishing]

‘This new book is an engrossing look at the life, artistic development and person behind the enfant terrible of the spotlight.’
Readings, Best Art & Design Books of 2016

‘Ashleigh Wilson’s new telling of Whiteley is a remarkable exercise in sustained authorial discipline…Wilson has given Whiteley the biography he deserves. Accommodating, even forgiving on occasion, but never indulgent. Engaged and attentive, unaffectedly interested in the artist, but not uncritical.’
Sydney Morning Herald, Best Books of 2016

‘A full-dress life of Whiteley that speeds and soars and never ceases to do homage to the colossal confrontation and contradiction the artist represents…Wilson has written that rarest of things, a 400-page biography that is hard to put down…[It] will make you weep for this exasperation of a man and hunger for his art.’
Australian, Best Books of 2016

‘Ashleigh Wilson has produced an intriguing, absorbing and assured account of Brett Whiteley’s life and work’.
Mark Knopfler

‘With relentless precision, Ashleigh Wilson has provided a peerless grasp of the life and genius of Brett Whiteley. This storied journey of one of Australia’s most mercurial twentieth-century artists will be impossible for the reader to put aside until it is finished. It is the dispassionate biography Whiteley has long needed: a career clarified from the brilliant clouds of myth.’
Barry Pearce, Emeritus Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of NSW

‘An essential and invaluable resource for any Whiteley scholar…Wilson’s achievement is considerable…Ashleigh Wilson’s Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing is a benchmark publication in Whiteley studies.’
Sydney Review of Books

‘For those readers who delight in much of Whiteley’s best work, this book is essential reading…Neither hagiography nor hatchet job, Brett Whiteley: Art, Life and the Other Thing is a clear-eyed account of an artist whose output was vast, if uneven, and whose legacy looms large in the history of modern art. Ashleigh Wilson provides an object lesson in writing the life of an artist.’
Australian Book Review

‘A vivid portrait…Sturdy and diligently researched.’
Herald Sun

‘[Wilson brings] his subject to life in a fast-paced, thrilling way…Clever selection of detail…An excellent biography.’
Books+Publishing

‘A fast-paced, well-researched biography…Wilson traces the development of Whiteley’s practice with extraordinary detail, revealing how travel, social issues, music and drugs (particularly heroin) influenced his art…An absorbing and intimate biography of a passionate yet volatile artist.’
Big Issue

‘The pages fly by in a way that’s more reminiscent of a thriller than a comprehensive biography. You’ll be left breathless and exasperated by the life of this amazing artist.’
Look Magazine

‘Wilson’s masterly biog captures an Aussie Icarus in full flight…It’s all there, and yet dealt with in a judicious manner rather than through a desire to sensationalise.’
Limelight

‘A dense and absorbing chronology of the artist’s life.’
Listener NZ

‘Ashleigh Wilson’s biography of Brett Whiteley is hard to put down. The narrative hums along beautifully, allowing readers a rare insight into Whiteley’s complex genius. A colossal undertaking, helped by extraordinary access. Wilson has delivered readers—and history—an absorbing, detailed and fascinating read.’
Walkley Magazine

‘Unlikely to be surpassed for its richness of detail, cast of characters and sheer narrative drive—all achieved without a trace of novelistic flourish.’
West Australian

‘Ashleigh Wilson methodically tracks this mercurial artist from early family days to his final years—a motley of sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, and importantly, art.’
Art Almanac

[Alan Marr · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have always loved Brett Whiteley’s art and have been more than a little curious about his life. His work is uncomfortable and provocative, at the same time as being deeply tender and evocative, demanding an emotional (even spiritual) response from me.
This book tells the story of his rise to “rock star” status as a painter and his decades of struggle with addiction. It describes his relationship and partnership with Wendy. There were times when I hated him for the way he treated Wendy. There were times I was angry with her for letting him get away with it. I was angry with them both for the way Arkie their daughter, was required to be the “adult” while her parents lost themselves in addiction.
Is it possible to be creative, provocative, different, prophetic and humble at the same time? Do we in society have to create space for a genius like this to flourish by tolerating his narcissistic and selfish behaviour?
Could we have had the beautiful Lavender Bay series if he had not been addicted to heroin? He thought not.
This is a warts and all story. I am grateful for it. I needed to have Google Images nearby while I was reading because although there are many beautiful colour plates included, his output was so prolific there wasn't room for all of them.
At the end of the book I liked him more than I did at the start.

[Lewis Woolston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I vaguely remember when Brett Whiteley died, I was only young but it made the news and the ABC did a special about him after his funeral if I remember it right. So I read this book with only a vague knowledge of who he was and what he did. The most significant thing I knew about him was that he did the art for an album cover of Dire Straits.
This book not only filled in the gaps in my knowledge it brought the man, his times, and his work, alive.
It read very easily, so easily in fact that I read this in installments on my lunch break over the course of a week or two. Yet it still didn't dumb down the subject, nor did it gloss over Whiteley's many flaws and faults.
An accurate, humane portrait.
Would read again.

[Sapphira Solstice · Rating 4 out of 5]

7/10 I found this book to be a brilliant depiction of both Brett Whiteley’s personal life and journey as a widely successful artist. While reading it I really felt like a part of his world and was intrigued to hear how it all panned out, in terms of his art - the answer is a hugely successful legendary artist. Sadly his personal life told a more tragic tale. But for the most part it sounded like a good life, of course very sad that it was cut short.

It was also an incredible experience being in Sydney while listening to the book, running past the opera house as his paintings of it were being mentioned, living right next to Lavender Bay and visiting Wendy’s garden there, and the real treasured experience was going to his Surrey Hills studio, seeing one of his most famous paintings, Alchemy in real life and seeing his studio/flat as he left it.

The writing was fine, nothing to write home about but it told the tale of Brett’s life in an evocative way. I would definitely suggest anyone who appreciates art to familiarise themselves with this wonderful artist and his story in order to truly feel and understand the whole beauty of his artworks.

[Nicolas Van Der Haar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Always interested in reading the biography of a creative. There was very little analysis from the writers perspective which made their biases a little hard to detect amid the retelling of a very interesting life.

[Upasana · Rating 4 out of 5]

so many emotions ran through me as I read this book. I am happy to have had them all.
I will remember most, some of the portraits of Wendy Whiteley - whose boundless creativity shines through.

[Tayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting something a little more rock 'n roll in style, like the life of the artist in question. Don't be expecting it here, reads a little dry for my lip-smackin' tastes.

[M. Sarki · Rating 2 out of 5]

A previously unknown artist and still very much so. This biography proved to be uninteresting and inconsequential for any evolving cultural enlightenment. Or it is possible the writer simply failed.

[C.S. Boag · Rating 4 out of 5]

A friend lent me this book over Christmas- "you might know one of the players," she said. I was familiar with only a few but I know the times. I am 73, only a few years younger than Whiteley would have been had he lived.
But he didn't of course, dead of an (accidental) overdose in a motel room in the south coast town of Thirroul. I am of a time but I knew nothing of it. I was a boy in short pants compared to Whiteley. While i lived sedately and toed the line he was living wild climbing his way up there with the greats.
he did it with drugs. It was a sort of self destruct button, prepared to do any thing to get what he wants. His art is great mostly but you do wonder. I f an athlete can't take performance enhancing drugs, why can an artist? I think I would even swing from the highest trapeze with out the right support.
But perhaps it is all about what you're prepared to do for your art. In his public pronouncements, Whiteley was all but incoherent. Patrick White, an early fan, disowned him when it became clear (to Patrick) that he was grovelling to those of use to him.
But in the end, its albout art, and Whiteley and drugs was a great artist The art gets you wondering, which art is supposed to do.
But the book- nicely written, well researched makes you think : about art, about life and about Whiteley.
In the end he was an irresponsible little boy, but what are we to expect. As he himself believed, as an artist he was little more than a medium. The trouble was his god was drugs.
But I enjoyed the book, finishing it in a couple of sittings. Whiteley will stay with me because of it. We are all little boys at heart, but not all of us have the guts or ability to be great artists. Good on you Brett, wherever you are. At least you made us think.

[Nola · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really really enjoyed this book, so much so I couldn't put it down, I have always been a fan of Brett Whitely's art, ceramics, drawings etc (pity I could never afford to own one!). I was aware of all of his issues however with the author having access to his notes and interviews of his closest family, friends, I feel that this book gives a true insight into the life of Brett. He was Australia's Picasso, always plying his trade, looking at new ways of producing art yet critics were sometimes cruel.

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite having a good knowledge of Brett's life, enjoyed and learnt much more from this bio drawing on his notebooks amongst other sources. Really good read, albeit still ending in Thirroul.