On view: 5 July to 14 September 2003

The Brett Whiteley Studio exhibition, The Fourth Veil, is dedicated to key works on paper by Brett Whiteley and opens on 5 July 2003 at the Surry Hill Studio.

The title comes from his 1976 catalogue notes where he describes the discipline of observation as being the ability to "concentrate on one vision till it discloses its third and fourth veil".

Whiteley's use of the spontaneous and tactile properties of paper are celebrated in this broad ranging exhibition drawn from the collections of the Brett Whiteley Studio Museum and the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Whiteley is famous for his curvilinear rhythms that seem to flow through whatever medium he is engaged with but is most celebrated in his extraordinarily skilled draftsmanship in his works on paper. Known as one of Australia's most talented draftsman he was passionate about curved lines and despised a hard geometric style. Whiteley cultivated his curved gestures through an imperative to distort and render what he called "heightened ordinariness".

Many of the drawings and prints in this exhibition move and transform before our eyes and reveal new "skins of reality". These works appear as more than their literal, static, two-dimensional existence, evoking a power to convey music or lived experience.

One of Whiteley's most famous drawings Shankar, 1971 depicts the musician Ravi Shankar in a state of psychic and spiritual transport entranced by his own sitar playing. It is a large square format drawing with areas of intense activity counterbalanced by the powerful white ground of the paper, which positively envelops the performers. The hands of a tabla player appear as extensions of Shankar's musical body. The ambiguous placement of Shankar's head as a hovering whiter than white light initiates a vortex effect compelling the viewer into the experience of the musician as his body appears to writhe and his fingers dance. The rhythmic sounds of the sitar appear to hover in an arresting ambience of ecstasy.

Conversely, Whiteley's passionate and tender depictions also rendered a series of works of animals in 1966 from the Regents Park Zoo in London. His screenprint, Swinging Monkey I, captures the impudence, athleticism and carnality of a caged chimpanzee. The image utilises the whole of the vertical sheet with the spare white page actively rocking the exposed chimp's bottom as he swings from one arm. The use of repetitive lines and complex tonal gestures that make up the primate's body, evoke such a strong sense of movement the chimp cheekily invites the shocked viewer to swing with him.

Although these images evoke quite different emotional registers they are consistently compelling and engage their audience in a way that appears quite physical. The subject matter included in The Fourth Veil varies from chimps and musicians to landscapes, still life and scenes from popular culture. These works on paper are all drawn together by their very physical flowing contours, oblique ambiguities and their expression of Whiteley's unique and striking visions revealed by skins of reality peeled back.