Demonstrating excellent timing, the Bendigo Art Gallery has announced a major exhibition Brett Whiteley : Drawing is Everything (31 July – 31 Oct).  Good timing because this week sees the publication by Schwartz City of Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné 1955-1992 by Kathie Sutherland.  This extraordinary publication comes in an elegant slipcase of seven books. It can be yours for $1,500.

The Bendigo exhibition from the Art Gallery of NSW will tour to other regional galleries; the itinerary has yet to be announced.  The exhibition will feature over 110 works including early images of Sydney and Europe, the abstracts that brought Whiteley international fame in the 1960s, as well as the landscapes, portraits, interiors and nudes that brought him recognition as one of the most prominent Australian artists of the 20th century.

Brett Whiteley (1939-1992) developed early; he won his first prize at the age of seven in an exhibition at Blaxland Galleries in Farmers department store. In 1960 he won a scholarship that took him to Europe and was included in a group show at the Whitechapel Gallery from which his Untitled red painting was purchased by the Tate Gallery, establishing a standing record for the youngest living artist to have work purchased by the Tate.  He won the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes each several times; in 1978 he won all three simultaneously, another unbroken record. Well done, Bendigo.