This is the space I would normally use to introduce you to one of your fabulous peers and invite them to share themselves in a couple of their own words. This month I thought I would introduce you to some our absent friends and their own self portraits, before continuing on with our usual programming in August.
First, the woman of the month, the undeniable Queen of self portraiture, Frida Kahlo. Frida, a Mexican artist, painted 55 self portraits in her career as an artist, out of 143. Her images reflected physical pain due to an accident which she had been involved in as a student and psychological pain due to her inability to carry a child to full term.
A print of this work by Brett Whitely hangs in the stairwell at the University I attend. I love it. I don’t think I’m alone in saying that as he won the Achibald Prize for it in 1976. The artist is at the core of the image, but you see him reflected in the mirror and being sketched at the same time. Whitely passed away from a heroin overdose in the nineties, a drug that he had grappled with over the years of his career. A loss for the Australian art scene or a lonely man, Australia certainly did benefit from his works.
These are just two of our absent friends who have delighted and tickled the fancy of many of us. Next month: Back to our feature member - who will it be?
