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Alchemy
1972-73
Eighteen panels refuse a single settled view. Figures, symbols and changes of scale make the work feel like a mind testing how much painting can contain.
Artist field note
Brett Whiteley
A line can turn a room, a body and a harbour into the same living shape.
Appears inOceania
The five in one idea
Whiteley made the places he inhabited feel inseparable from the movement of his hand: the harbour, the room and the body share a restless line. Sources: Art Gallery of NSW, Woman in bath (1963), collection art trail; Brett Whiteley Alchemy exhibition (2002); 9 Shades of Whiteley (2006); Self and Identity education resource. Heritage NSW, Brett Whiteley Blue Plaque, for The jacaranda tree (1977). See source links at the end of the UK chapter.