Biography brett whiteley

Biography

Brett Whiteley is one of Australia’s most celebrated artists. He won the Art Gallery of NSW Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes several times, and his artistic career was bolstered by his celebrity status in Australia and overseas.

He worked across painting, sculpture and the graphic arts, and is best known for his sensual and lyrical paintings of interiors, nudes and harbour scenes.

Born in Sydney, Whiteley went to boarding school in Bathurst in 1948.

Returning to Sydney in 1956, he worked as a commercial artist in the studio of the Lintas Advertising Agency in Sydney and began life-drawing classes at the Julian Ashton Art School.

Biography brett whiteley

He occasionally joined John Santry’s sketch club, through which he came to know the Australian landscape painter Lloyd Rees, one of Whiteley’s strong influences. On weekends, Whiteley painted around the NSW country towns of Bathurst, Hill End and Sofala, producing works such as Sofala 1958.

In 1959 Whiteley was awarded