BRETT WHITELEY

Australian Galleries, Melbourne (label on reverse)
Fine Australian and European Paintings, Sotheby's, Melbourne, 28 April 1998, lot 4
Private collection, Melbourne; purchased from the above

Good condition. Small lifting of paper top left corner. General bowing of secondary support. This painting is framed behind glass.
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The watercolour and gouache, Watego Bay by Brett Whiteley, combines the sophisticated design and striking simplicity of a Japanese colour woodcut, evoking the mood of nature through the skilled use of a limited range of colours. Through the subtle use of pale blues and greys, highlighted with white, Whiteley conveys the feeling of tropical dampness, of moisture-laden skies and waters calm and relaxing, creating a sensuous work of art that is as much  about seeing as feeling. Whiteley was at Watego Beach, Byron Bay from October 1989, producing a series of paintings and drawings, which were exhibited at the Australian Galleries in Sydney in March the following year. It included a number of major paintings such as Wategoes Beach, Byron Bay (summary) 1990 and a suite of eighteen gouaches and drawings which he titled Wategoes Beach, holiday suite. They were, he added in the catalogue entry, 'in celebration of two weeks holiday'. Watego Bay, given its size and date would seem to belong to this group.

After his divorce from Wendy, Whiteley had travelled with Janice Spencer to London and Morocco, working in Paris, and then on to Bali and Japan. Works inspired by his visits to Marrakech, Italy and Japan were included in the March exhibition, while his Byron Bay works, as in this particular gouache, showed the continuing influence of Japanese art on his own. Janet Hawley visited Byron Bay when Whiteley was working there, writing in a feature article in The Age Good Weekend about his reference to 'the energy of Japanese calligraphy', his 'obsessive commitment to art above all else, and his intense professional integrity...'. ¹ Of his subjects, Whiteley said, 'You could make a painting about anything at all, any moment in time you could stop and turn into a visual poem - '. ²  The solo show at the Australian Galleries was held in conjunction with another, of works from France, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. March 1990 in Sydney was the month of the wunderkind of Australian art, lionised by the media.  Of the Australian Galleries show, Pamela Williams said, 'The vision encapsulates land and seascapes, nudes baking under a tangerine sun on white beaches with ultramarine seas; harbor views with boats flitting in drizzling lavender rain.' ³

1. Janet Hawley, 'Brett Whiteley: the art of the warrior,' The Age,  Good Weekend, Melbourne, 17 February 1990, pp. 22 & 24
2. ibid, p.24
3. Pamela Williams, 'Whiteley at his most spectacular', Business Review Weekly, 2 March 1990, p. 115