Past exhibitions

Brett Whiteley To Yirrawalla 1972, purchased by the New South Wales State Government 1994, transferred to the Gallery 1998 © Wendy Whiteley

Landscapes are key to our understanding of Australian art. Brett Whiteley immersed himself in both urban and rural landscapes from his early years, and it was a constant theme throughout his artistic practice, whether in intimate studies or large poetic paintings.

Whiteley’s works combine elements of abstraction and realism in a lyrical and expressive manner. He fused an Asian aesthetic of perspective with a European sensibility to create a unique floating sensual landscape, with birds, nests, trees, rocks and rivers inhabiting a world founded on place and set in imagination and feeling.

Whiteley redefined the way we see the Australian landscape, becoming one of our most celebrated 20th-century painters with his interpretations and moods of the countryside.

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