All you need is one big room with kitchens and bathrooms off it, and one big room to sleep, cry and make love in. Brett Whiteley speaking to journalist Frances Kelly, 1975.

Interiors - whether in London, France, New York or Sydney, all were important to Brett Whiteley, not only as places to live and work, but also as raw material for his imagination. Now the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills 'Whiteley's last residence and workplace before his death in 1992' hosts a new exhibition which shows the depth of this influence through forty paintings and drawings chosen by Barry Pearce, Head Curator, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Wendy Whiteley, from collections of the AGNSW and the Whiteley Estate . Whiteley sculptures, ceramics and photographs complement the exhibition.

A number of the works were painted at 13 Pembridge Crescent, W11 London, an old Victorian house where the artist shared a flat with his wife Wendy from 1962 to 1963. They show intimate glimpses of bathrooms with nudes and include an important painting Woman in Bath 1964, [recently purchased for AGNSW by the Art Gallery Society].

Following their return to Sydney in late 1969, the Whiteleys set up house in Lavender Bay where Whiteley painted such familiar icons as Self Portrait In The Studio 1976, [Archibald prize winner 1976]. It was also where he painted the haunting portrait of his close friend, Melbourne artist Joel Elenberg [Portrait of Joel Elenberg, 1980] who was dying of cancer.

The works in this exhibition have defined the spaces, places and people who were important to Brett Whiteley. They are also some of the images that have defined Brett Whiteley as a major Australian artist.