Title

Art, life and the other thing

1978

Artist

Brett Whiteley

Australia, England

07 Apr 1939 – 15 Jun 1992

Artist profile

Alternate image of Art, life and the other thing by Brett Whiteley

Details

Date

1978

Media categories

Painting , Photograph , Collage

Materials used

oil, photograph and mixed media on board

Dimensions

triptych: left panel 91.9 x 79.6 x 7.8 cm; centre panel 211.8 x 130.0 x 8.5 cm; right panel 31.2 x 31.2 x 7.3 cm :
a - left panel, 90.4 x 77.2 cm

b - centre panel, 212 x 130 x 8.5 cm

c - right panel, 31.1 x 31.1 cm

Signature & date

Signed and dated l.r. centre panel, black ink "brett Whiteley 78". Signed verso, black oil on masking tape "BRETT WHITELEY".

Credit

Purchased by the New South Wales State Government 1994, transferred to the Gallery 1998

Location

Not on display

Accession number

355.1998.a-c

Copyright

© Wendy Whiteley/Copyright Agency
Reproduction requests

Archibald Prize

Winner - 1978

Artist information

Brett Whiteley
Artist profile

Works in the collection

85

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About

When Brett Whiteley and his family arrived back in Sydney permanently at the end of 1969 after a decade abroad, his reputation with illicit drugs preceded him spectacularly. Seven years later his controversial ‘Self-portrait in the studio’, which was awarded the Archibald Prize for 1976, was at once the image of an expansive life on the shores of Lavender Bay, and symbolic of a cage of serious heroin addiction within which Whiteley had found himself, and that would bring about his eventual demise.

Australian Art Department, AGNSW, 2008

Two years on Whiteley entered another controversial self-portrait into the Archibald - ‘Art, life and the other thing’ - and it too made an immediate impact. That year he got the trifecta, awarded all three prizes including the Wynne and Sulman. However now, his self-portrait was a far more bold, almost grotesque confessional, an elongated image of himself referencing the infamous debate over William Dobell’s Archibald-winning portrait of Joshua Smith of 1943, flanked on one side by a simian beast howling with anguish as a ghostly hand delivers it a syringe, and on the other a photograph of the artist looking serenely normal.

Unlike ‘Self-portrait in the studio, critics were divided about ‘Art, life and the other thing’, perhaps because of its sheer sensationalism, and lack of subtlety of the earlier work. Almost too brutally honest, it seemed like the final flaring of a dying star. Many who were close to Whiteley, then aged thirty-nine, felt sure he would not survive beyond forty. However he did survive for another fourteen years, finally succumbing fatally to his addiction in a motel room at Thirroul on the south coast of New South Wales in 1992.

This painting won the Archibald Prize in 1978 and was acquired by the Gallery in 1998
Exhibition history
Shown in 14 exhibitions
- Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes for 1978, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 Dec 1978–29 Jan 1979
- Brett Whiteley: van Gogh self portraits, Greenhill Galleries, , 27 Jan 1987–22 Feb 1987
- Self Portraits and Other Intimacies, The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 16 Sep 1995–19 Nov 1995
- Brett Whiteley Art & Life (1995-1996), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 16 Sep 1995–19 Nov 1995
  
  Brett Whiteley Art & Life (1995-1996), Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, 13 Dec 1995–28 Jan 1996
  
  Brett Whiteley Art & Life (1995-1996), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, 22 Feb 1996–08 Apr 1996
  
  Brett Whiteley Art & Life (1995-1996), Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 09 May 1996–16 Jun 1996
  
  Brett Whiteley Art & Life (1995-1996), Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 02 Jul 1996–26 Aug 1996
  
  Brett Whiteley Art & Life (1995-1996), Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, 18 Sep 1996–17 Nov 1996
- Inaugural permanent display, National Portrait Gallery [Old Parliament House], Canberra, 04 Mar 1999–04 Mar 2000
- Instantly: Whiteley with words (2000), The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 08 Apr 2000–16 Jul 2000
- Australian icons: twenty artists from the collection, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 04 Aug 2000–03 Dec 2000
- Whiteley Himself and Friends, The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 06 Dec 2003–11 Apr 2004
- Great collections (2009), Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, 12 Dec 2008–18 Jan 2009
  
  Great collections (2009), Tweed Regional Gallery & Margaret Olley Art Centre, Murwillumbah, 06 Feb 2009–15 Mar 2009
  
  Great collections (2009), Western Plains Cultural Centre, Dubbo, 03 Apr 2009–10 May 2009
  
  Great collections (2009), Albury Regional Gallery, Albury, 29 May 2009–05 Jul 2009
  
  Great collections (2009), Art Gallery of Ballarat, Ballarat, 24 Jul 2009–30 Aug 2009
- Endlessnessism (2010-2011), The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 28 Aug 2010–03 Jul 2011
- Brett Whiteley portraits, The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 23 May 2014–28 Sep 2014
- Alchemy-Pop, The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 31 Oct 2014–31 May 2015
- Tributes, The Brett Whiteley Studio, Surry Hills, 13 May 2016–13 Nov 2016
- Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 05 Jun 2021–26 Sep 2021
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Geelong Gallery, Geelong, 06 Nov 2021–20 Feb 2022
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Cairns Art Gallery, Cairns, 18 Mar 2022–12 Jun 2022
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 09 Jul 2022–03 Oct 2022
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Launceston, 22 Oct 2022–08 Jan 2023
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Bathurst, 26 Jan 2023–26 Mar 2023
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Museum and Art Galleries of the Northern Territory, Darwin, 15 Apr 2023–25 Jun 2023
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, Home of the Arts, Surfers Paradise, 15 Jul 2023–02 Oct 2023
  
  Archie 100: A century of the Archibald Prize, National Portrait Gallery [Parliamentary Zone], Canberra, 21 Oct 2023–28 Jan 2024
Bibliography
Referenced in 25 publications
- Barry Pearce et al., Brett Whiteley education pack, 'Self-Portraits and Other Intimacies', Sydney, 1995, (colour illus.). card no. 9 in education pack
- Art Gallery of New South Wales, Archibald, Wynne & Sulman Prizes for 1978, Sydney, 1978, 5. Archibald Prize: cat.no. 36
- Margaret Clarke (Director), Red, black and Whiteley, North Ryde, 2000.
- Peter Cochrane, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'Artist was the $1m man', pg. 17, Sydney, 17 Jun 1992, 17 (illus.).
- David Evans and Elizabeth Fortescue., Daily telegraph mirror, 'Whiteley: The fatal flaw', Sydney, 17 Jun 1992, (illus., detail).
- Alec George, Look, 'Whiteley's 'inner paddock', pg. 26, Sydney, Jun 2014, 26.
- Janet Hawley, Artists in conversation, 'Brett Whiteley', pg. 92-107, Richmond, 2012, 95.
- Janet Hawley, Good Weekend Magazine, 'Brett Whiteley: the art of the warrior', pg. 16-26, Sydney, 17 Feb 1990, 22.
- Janet Hawley, Good Weekend Magazine, 'Still life', pg. 18-24, Sydney, 02 Jul 1994, 21 (colour illus.), 22.
- Anna Waldmann, The Archibald Prize: an illustrated history 1921-1981, Sydney, 1981, 235 (colour illus.).
- Marianne Hulsbosch (Editor), Cambridge visual arts: stage 4, Cambridge, 2008, 122 (colour illus.).
- Susan Hunt, The Archibald Prize 1921-1993, Sydney, 1993, cover (colour illus.), 8 (colour illus.).
- Jane Hylton, William Dobell: portraits in context, 'Image of contention', pg. 10-20, Kent Town, 2003, 10.
- Bruce James, Whiteley with words, 'Whiteley with words', pg.2-4, Sydney, 2000, 8.
- John MacDonald, The Sydney Morning Herald, 'On our selection: a moonlit mix', pg. 16-17, Sydney, 21 Feb 2009-22 Feb 2009, 17. NOTE: Review of 'Great Collections' exhibition.
- John McPhee, Great collections, Sydney, 2008, 108 (colour illus.).
- Barry Pearce and Alec George, 9 Shades of Whiteley, Sydney, 2008, 3.
- Barry Pearce, Brett Whiteley Art & Life, 'Persona and the painter', pg. 15-41, London, 1995, 38, 173 (colour illus.), 233. plate no. 114
- Peter Ross, Let's face it: the history of the Archibald Prize, 'Into the 1970s', pg. 63-87, Sydney, 1999, 78 (colour illus.), 136 (colour illus.).
- Peter Ross, Let's face it: the history of the Archibald Prize, ‘Chapter 4: Into the 1970s’, pg. 61-85, Sydney, 2005, 76 (colour illus.), 77, 146 (colour illus.).
- Sotheby's Australia, Sotheby's Sydney: Important Australian Art (31 August 2010), Melbourne, 2010, 50. General reference to 1979 Robin Gibson exhibition
- Inara Walden, Drugs: a social history, 'Intoxicated dreamers', 7-9, Glebe, 2003, 6 (colour illus.). Exhibition guide produced by the Justice & Police Museum for the exhibition 'Drugs: a social history', 25 October 2003 - 10 October 2003.
- Anna Waldmann, Art and Australia (Vol. 20, No. 2), 'The Archibald prize', pg. 213-236, Sydney, Summer 1982, 235 (colour illus.).
- Frank Walker, Herald Sun, 'What lies beneath 95% of gallery's art collection hidden in basement', pg. 18, Port Melbourne, 30 Dec 2007, 18 (colour illus., detail).
- Margherita Zanoletti, Literature and aesthetics: the journal of the Sydney Society of Literature and Aesthetics [vol 17, no 2], 'Figures of speech/ Figure retoriche: Verbal and Visual in Brett Whiteley', pg. 192-208, Sydney, Dec 2007, 192, 198, 199 (illus.), 200-206.