By Hannah Story
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| After two years closed for renovations, Brett Whiteley Studio has reopened with an exhibition that includes The balcony 2, one of the artist's paintings of Sydney Harbour. (Supplied: AGNSW/Anna Kučera) |
In 1985, Archibald-winning artist Brett Whiteley and his then-wife Wendy bought a T-shirt factory and warehouse on Raper Street in Sydney's Surry Hills.
They quickly converted it into a studio and exhibition space, where Whiteley lived from 1987 when his marriage disintegrated, until 1992, the year he died of an opiate overdose in a motel room in Thirroul, north of Wollongong.
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| Whiteley has become a legendary figure in Australian art, with his art inspiring countless artists and studied in schools across the country. (Supplied: Andrew Fisher) |
The studio, sold to the NSW Government by the Whiteleys' late daughter Arkie, was entrusted to the Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), which left the artist's studio intact — down to Whiteley's art supplies and a half-finished finished painting of Sydney Harbour.
In that way, the studio offers a precious insight into the process of an influential artist, with an adjoining exhibition space showing completed works.
"I think the romance of [Whiteley's] life story sometimes overshadows his accomplishments and success as an artist," Nick Yelverton, curator of Brett Whiteley Studio, says.
"At the end of the day, the man could really draw and paint well and the work is really strong and speaks for itself."
Two years ago, the studio closed for extensive renovations to make the building safer and more accessible, with its leaky roof replaced and climate-controlled air-conditioning installed.
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"Where else in Sydney can you see an artist studio exactly how it was, exactly how they left it?" Yelverton says.
(Supplied: Cieran Murphy) |
Now, it's reopened its doors, with a new exhibition celebrating Whiteley's life and legacy, Coming Home, collecting both his work and personal items, including a 1985 letter from musician Paul Kelly.
Here are six of Whiteley's works you can see at his newly reopened studio:
Alchemy
Yelverton recalls feeling "dumbstruck" when he first saw the artist's "ginormous" 1976 painting Alchemy.
"I'd never seen anything quite like it in my life," he says.
Whiteley spent a year working on the painting in the early 70s in his studio — formerly a coal storage building — on Sydney's Lower North Shore.
"It's often described as an allegorical self-portrait," Yelverton says.
At 16 metres wide, and spread across 18 wood panels, Alchemy features imagery Yelverton describes as "surreal, eclectic and mind-boggling", including an exploding sun on the far left.
"If you read it left to right, it tells a life-to-death story," the curator says.
"I kind of see the work as a road map of Brett's life that shows us where he's been and what's inspired him."
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"Alchemy (detail from) is the business of seeing what doesn't exist,"
Whiteley wrote in his notebook. (Supplied: AGNSW) |
It's also remarkable for its use of found objects, like dentures, animal bones and a taxidermied bird.
"By incorporating found objects into his pictures, he sought to narrow the gap between life and art in his work," Yelverton says.
And if Alchemy seems oddly familiar but you've never seen the painting before, it might be because it features on the cover of British rock band Dire Straits' 1984 live album of the same name, as Whiteley was friends with the band's frontman Mark Knoplfer and bass player John Illsley.
It's a little extra evidence of the role music played in Whiteley's life and career; at the studio his 600-album-strong record collection is often playing on his old turntable.
The green mountain, Fiji
Whiteley painted The green mountain, Fiji in 1969, during the five months he lived in a hut in the village of Navutulevu.
Whiteley moved there after two years living in New York, at the Hotel Chelsea, where he became friends with musicians Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan and joined the Vietnam War protest movement.
While his activism inspired him to create the almost-22-metre work The American dream, he left the city feeling burnt out.
Fiji then proved creatively fertile for Whiteley in a different way to New York.
"In this work, he depicts a bird, leaving its nest and flying high into the sky," Yelverton says. "The scene is set against an idyllic backdrop comprising rolling green mountains, palm trees and verdant vegetation.
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The green mountain, Fiji was once owned by Nobel Prize-winning Australian author Patrick White,
who later gifted the painting to AGNSW. (Supplied: AGNSW) |
"I read the bird leaving the nest as an allegory for Brett leaving Australia in 1959. He ended up spending about 10 years overseas, living and working in Europe, Morocco, the United States and Fiji."
Yelverton suggests the "exaggerated depiction of the undulating landscape in the background" is a nod to Australian landscape painter Lloyd Rees, who had been a formative influence, and later a friend and mentor to Whiteley.
The mottled effect of the green paint was caused by raindrops falling on the canvas as Whiteley painted outside, as Whiteley explains in a handwritten note in the bottom corner of the painting.
That note also "laments" a proposal to bulldoze the mountain to create a road for Australian tourists.
"This work demonstrates Brett's love of and concern for the natural world," Yelverton says.
View from Raper St studio
Whiteley had initially intended to send this hyper-detailed drawing, View from Raper St studio, to his mother, Beryl, who he used to call "Snig", before that nickname transformed into "Ning" — his daughter Arkie's mispronunciation.
Dated 1985, it was drawn the year he and Wendy bought and converted the warehouse and studio, and shows the view from its window, as it looked in the mid-80s — a very different look to Surry Hills today.
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View from Raper St studio is one of two letters to Beryl included in the exhibition
Brett Whiteley: Coming Home. (Supplied: AGNSW) |
"In this drawing, he depicts tight clusters of Victorian terrace houses, a cobbled street, telegraph poles and timber fences, in extraordinary detail," Yelverton explains.
"What I love about this work is it evokes the grungy character of Surry Hills before it was gentrified.
"I doubt there are many artists who could afford to buy a studio in Surry Hills these days, which is a shame because artists like Brett help make places like Surry Hills a cool, desirable place to live."
At the bottom of the drawing, Whiteley described his new studio as a "kasbah" that "stood out like a fort amongst these terraced houses".
Why didn't he ever post the letter? Or one other letter that also appears as part of Coming Home? Wendy told Yelverton: "If he liked the drawings, he kept them."
Red roof with fence
Whiteley first created Red roof with fence in 1970, not long after he returned to Australia.
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Yelverton says the suburbs in the background "form a beautiful pattern
when you step back andsee the work as a whole". (Supplied: AGNSW) |
It features real wooden fence palings — sourced from his home in Lavender Bay, where he painted so many of his iconic views of Sydney Harbour — which were applied on top of the oil painting, giving the work a sculptural quality.
He reworked Red roof with fence in the early 80s, adding the terracotta-roofed houses and telegraph poles of the suburbs to the landscape behind the red-brick home in the foreground.
"In this work, [Whiteley is] trying to re-create the look and feel of an Australian backyard," Yelverton says.
"For me, it brings back memories of hitting cricket balls over the fence at my childhood home in the suburbs. I find it incredibly nostalgic.
"In this work, I think Brett is rediscovering his love and appreciation for Australian life after living and working abroad for a decade."
It was no small thing for Whiteley to do. Yelverton explains the artist loved the natural beauty and wildlife of Australia but thought its culture could be "conservative and backward" after two decades of conservative federal government.
Self-portrait in the studio
Whiteley won the Archibald Prize for his 1976 painting Self-portrait in the studio — one of the most well-known of his works.
Inspired by Henri Matisse's The Red Studio (1911), which he had seen in New York, Whiteley painted a scene of his studio in Lavender Bay, in a rich shade of ultramarine blue — a colour Whiteley said had an "ecstasy-like effect upon my nervous system quite unlike any other colour".
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The mirror Whiteley used to paint Self-portrait in the Studio, which features in the work, will also be on display
as part of the exhibition. (Supplied: AGNSW) |
While the image includes a view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, a naked woman's body, the artist's chair and glass coffee table, Whiteley himself can only be seen as a reflection in a mirror in his hand at the bottom of the painting.
Some of Whiteley's hair is even attached to the canvas, again adding a sculptural dimension.
"It's essentially a portrait about making a self-portrait," Yelverton says.
"We can see one hand holding the mirror and another hand painting, which is a common motif in Brett's works.
"It begs the question: What is the true subject of this work? The act of creation or is it the artist's self-portrayal?"
When Whiteley's self-portrait won the Archibald, it challenged traditional ideas of portraiture — eschewing realism in favour of a broader representation of the artist at home.
It's also been referenced by other artists, including Natasha Walsh, whose 2022 Archibald finalist painting Dear Brett (the blue room) borrows Whiteley's colour palette and the face in the mirror.
Wendy sleeping
Whiteley's wife Wendy often posed for the artist during their 30-year marriage.
"She appears in some of his greatest works," Yelverton says.
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In a statement, Wendy Whiteley said the Brett Whiteley Studio is "not a museum relic,
but [is] a living place of creativity". (Supplied: AGNSW)
This drawing of Whiteley — created using pen and a fat paintbrush loaded with ink — from 1973 is one of a handful the artist made of her sleeping. |
"Brett's adoration of Wendy is keenly felt in this work," Yelverton says.
"I feel he hasn't idealised or sexualised her. He simply captured her natural beauty during a fleeting private moment shared between husband and wife."
While the couple divorced in 1989, Wendy continues to manage the artist's estate, following the death of their daughter Arkie from cancer in 2001.
Yelverton describes her as the "driving force" behind the studio as a public gallery.
"Her hard work and commitment to the studio ensures that Brett's work and legacy will be preserved for future generations," he says. "She's an extraordinary woman."
Brett Whitely: Coming Home is at Brett Whiteley Studio, Sydney.
First published at ABC News, July 30, 2026
