A friend recommended this, and I was wondering how I’d like it as she is very art-minded and I’m not. The late Brett Whiteley has been in the news recently because of a courtcase which rested on whether some paintings of his were fakes or not. I hadn’t realized what a prolific and edgy artist he was, and how famous he was right throughout his life, right from when he won a prize to go to Paris on an art fellowship as a 21 year old. Of course, there’s far more video footage of him later in his life, and so it’s been supplemented with re-creations and voiceovers, and Monty Pythonesque treatment of early images. I hadn’t realized, either, how beautiful Wendy Whiteley was as a young woman and how articulate she is now, too. It’s an interesting exploration of her role as muse too. It captures well the insularity of Australian culture in the early 1960s and of course, Robert Hughes gets a look in. Well worth seeing, even if you’re not art-minded either!
My rating: 4 stars.
The Resident Judge of Port Phillip 