Listen to Wendy Whiteley speak about key works in the exhibition ‘Brett Whiteley: Blue and White’.

Image: Brett Whiteley ‘Still life with meat’ 1975–76 (detail), Art Gallery of New South Wales © Wendy Whiteley / Copyright Agency

Brett Whiteley ‘The pink heron’

Madrid is every bit enchanting with its elegant boulevards, expansive parks, royal palaces and charming plazas. Located at the geographical heart of the Iberian Peninsula, the Spanish capital boasts magnificent art treasures in The Prado, Thyssen-Bornemisza and Reina Sofía museums. Join Brian Ladd as he explores the art and architecture of this sophisticated city and reveals why its history and culture make Madrid so fascinating and enchanting. 

Brian Ladd is past President of the Art Gallery Society of New South Wales, a specialist in European and Australian sculpture, and a graduate in sculpture from the National Art School, Sydney. From 1996 to 2010 he was Head of Public Programs Department, Art Gallery of New South Wales, and responsible for enlivening the Gallery and engaging diverse audiences with art.

Enchanting cities Madrid

Frank Young ‘Kulata punu’

Tessa MacKay

Sinead Davies

Shane Bowden

Samuel Rush Condon

Ramesh Mario Nithiyendran

Prudence Flint

Learning curve lecture series: Sublime - the pleasure of the overwhelming presented by Damian Freeman on 20.6.14

From the sublime to the ridiculous

Hear from one of our staff about William Dobell’s artwork ‘Self portrait’ 1932 at the Art Gallery of NSW.

William Dobell  ‘Self portrait’ 1932. Purchased with assistance from the Trustees of the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation 1985. © Courtesy Sir William Dobell Art Foundation


Recorded in June 2020 at the Art Gallery of NSW on Gadigal land of the Eora nation.

- Transcript -

This self-portrait was painted three years after Newcastle-born artist William Dobell arrived in London.  
 
The impoverished 33-year-old artist gazes out at us, his hair slightly dishevelled. It’s a remarkable attempt to portray one’s self without glamour, bravado or artifice.  
  
When Dobell later returned to Sydney, he became a popular portraitist and won the Archibald Prize three times. Yet his success was not without cost.  
 
His first win, a portrait of fellow wartime artist Joshua Smith, was challenged in court for being a caricature rather than a formal portrait.  
 
Tabloid headlines like ‘Dobell tells of 2 years in a tent with Joshua Smith’ invited readers to infer the nature of their friendship.  
 
Critics also dismissed Dobell’s portraits as ‘arty to the point of effeminacy’. Even positive press spoke of the ‘queer genius’ of this ‘handsome, well-built bachelor’.  
 
Dobell and Smith were both intensely private men at a time when male homosexuality was a crime. They soon retreated from the gossipy Sydney art scene to their respective family homes in suburban Newcastle and Sydney.

William Dobell 'Self portrait' 1932

Art Gallery of NSW

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