Brett Whiteley

PreviousNextCatalogue 19 BRETT WHITELEY (1939 – 1992) SYDNEY WINTER, 1980 oil and mixed media on canvas 51.0 x 78.5 cm (diptych) signed lower left: Whiteley signed, dated and inscribed verso: ‘SYDNEY WINTER’’ / brett whiteley 80 $180,000 – 240,000 Provenance Robin Gibson Gallery, Sydney Private collection, Sydney Essay Brett Whiteley returned to Sydney in November 1969 with his wife Wendy and their little girl Arkie after almost ten years in London, Europe, America and Asia. They settled in a white three story house in Walker Street, Lavender Bay overlooking the harbour through the fig trees and frangipani. 1 The views from the windows of the sitting room were picturesque and uninterrupted reaching out to the arch of the Harbour Bridge and its rusticated pylons. In 1974 the Whiteleys purchased the Lavender Bay house and the artist began one of his most adored and diverse series of works – the Lavender Bay Series . It was a subject he would return to often in numerous media, evoking the many dramatic weather changes experienced on the harbour, from azure blue days, starry nights and grey days thick with rain. Sydney Winter of 1980 is one of the rain meditations, the palette of which is born of those smoky abstract works painted in London during the early 1960s. 2 Whiteley was fascinated with the effects of rain and wind on the harbour and he painted a number of works depicting rainy Sydney days including Lavender Bay in the Rain , 1974 (private collection) and the well known 1987 lithograph of the same title, which depicts the jetty below the house through the palm trees with the same characteristic palette of soft grey and white. In Sydney Winter , the Harbour Bridge is seen through a veil of rain and appears like an apparition in the top right corner of the work. Here the yachts and watercraft are left moored in the rain awaiting fair-weather days and a few solitary seagulls retreat into the distance towards the Bridge. 1. McGrath, S., Brett Whiteley , Bay Books, Sydney, 1992, p. 99 2. A critical example of these works is Untitled Red Painting , 1960, Tate Gallery, London, which started its life as a ‘white’’’’ painting and then evolved into a rosy taupe palette, highlighted with creams. LARA NICHOLLS Click here to register an ABSENTEE BID Click here to register a TELEPHONE BID Click here to complete a BUYER REGISTRATION Click here to request a CONDITION REPORT

Lot 102 BRETT WHITELEY (1939-1992) (The Orange) Fruit Dove in Clark Park 1980 colour screenprint 76.0 x 53.0 cm numbered, titled and signed below image edition: 6/30 Provenance: Deutscher-Menzies, Melbourne, 10 March 2004, lot 176 Art Galleries Schubert, Queensland (label attached verso) Private company collection, Queensland Deutscher-Menzies, Sydney, 24 September 2008, lot 123 Private collection, Melbourne Reference: Brett Whiteley: The Graphics 1961-1992 , Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 1992, p.113, cat.58 (illus. p.65, another example) Estimate: $ 10000 - 15000 Auction Title: Sydney - 21 March 2013 - (Macedon - 0061) Important Australian & International Fine Paintings & Sculpture 21 March 2013 6.30pm Menzies Gallery, 12 Todman Avenue, Kensington, NSW 2033 VIEWING MELBOURNE 7 – 10 MARCH, 11am-6pm Menzies Gallery, 1 Darling Street, SOUTH YARRA VIC 3141 VIEWING SYDNEY 14 – 20 MARCH, 11am-6pm Menzies Gallery, 12 Todman Avenue, KENSINGTON NSW 2033 If you cannot attend the auction, you may either: Register to absentee bid on this lot Register to telephone bid on this lot Terms and Conditions Contact us regarding this lot Email a friend

BRETT WHITELEY (1939-1992) Kurrajong 1981 oil, gouache, collage and branch on board 183.0 x 120.0 cm signed lower centre: brett whiteley dated and inscribed lower right: 81/ Kurrajong Provenance: Australian Galleries, Melbourne (label attached verso) Private collection, Melbourne, 1986 Gould Galleries, Melbourne Sotheby's, Sydney, 21 March 2005, lot 9 Corporate collection, Melbourne Menzies, Melbourne, 14 September 2011, lot 43 Private collection, Melbourne Exhibited: Australian Landscape , Gould Galleries, Melbourne, 12 May - 2 June 2007, no.24

Lot number: 390 Brett Whiteley Young Kookaburra taking its first laugh , oil, glue, mixed media and kookaburra feathers on board 115 x 90 cm $500,000-700,000 , inscribed lower right: Young Kookaburra taking its first laugh, label to reverse with all details. Exhibited: Bonython Gallery, 'Australian Irresistibles, 1930-1970', August 11-September 2, 1970, catalogue no. 127. Curated by Alannah Coleman. Provenance: Private Collection Switzerland; Private Collection London; Private Collection, London and Sydney. Copyright: Wendy Whiteley

BRETT WHITELEY (1939-1992) Summer's Bay circa 1962 oil, tempera and collage on board signed 'Whiteley' lower right signed and inscribed 'Summer's Bay/ Brett Whiteley' verso 90 x 76cm PROVENANCE Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney Allen D. Christensen Collection, California On loan to the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth from September 1979 (label attached verso) Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne Private collection, Melbourne Deutscher and Hackett, Melbourne, 29/08/2007, lot no. 4, sold $204,000 (IBP) Private collection, Melbourne EXHIBITED Rudy Komon Gallery, Sydney, 1963, cat.10 (as 'Summer Bay') Paintings from the Collection of Allen D. Christensen, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 7-22 December 1976, cat. no. 50 LITERATURE Modern Australian Painting 1920s-1980s, Deutscher Fine Art, Melbourne, 9-20 September 1997, cat. no. 35 (illus.)