Ink

On view: 29 April - 20 August 2006

This exhibition is built around a group of ink drawings and paintings of Brett Whiteley inspired by a particular aspect of Asian sensibility.

They are accompanied by works of other Australian and Asian artists selected from the collections of the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The quality which unites them is a fluid energy of ink and brush, extending into the media of watercolour and oil paint, reflecting a lyrical response to certain characteristics of calligraphic style and philosophy that began to infiltrate Western visual culture during the 1960s.

As well as Whiteley, artists included here are Peter Upward, Ian Fairweather, John Olsen, Tony Tuckson, Royston Harpur, Michael Johnson, and four contemporary Chinese, Li Jinxue, HE Jianguo, Wang Ziwu and Nie Ou.

Whiteley was a celebrated draftsman-painter both here and abroad and this exhibition brings to the fore his confidence with the curved line born of a deep admiration for Asian art. He explored Zen philosophy which emphasised the sense of ‘being in the moment’ and an automatic process of flow and focus. He travelled extensively throughout Asia, including India in 1965, and Japan in the last years of his life.

As Whiteley said in the documentary film Difficult Pleasure: ‘…the attraction of drawing is that there is an immediacy and freshness…the essence of Japanese art is not so much [that] it’s simple, or that it’s reduced… it’s just brief, beautifully brief.’

Curator Barry Pearce says ‘this is a fine opportunity to bring together some Australian works influenced by, or in tune with, a special Asian aesthetic; and to see calligraphic examples close to the original source of their inspiration from our rich holdings’.

The Brett Whiteley Studio, 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, offers a unique insight into Whiteley’s world. Changing exhibitions demonstrate the broad nature of his imaginative life, subject matter and working methods.