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• Auction House:
  Mossgreen
• Sale Name:
  Fine Australian Art
• Sale Date:
  28 Oct 2014 ~ 6.30pm
• Lot #:
  21
• Lot Description:
  Brett Whiteley
  (1939-1992)
  Rita Nelson 1964-65
  oil on board
  66 x 61 cm
  inscribed 'RITA' lower centre; inscribed 'Francis Bacon' mid right; signed, titled and dated 'Brett Whiteley, ÒRita NelsonÓ, 1964-65' verso; bears Melborough Fine Art, London label verso
• Provenance:
  South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 1966; From The collection of the late Alan Boxer
• Exhibited:
  Brett Whiteley: Zoo and Christie Series, Marlborough New London Gallery, London, 5-30 October 1965, cat. no. 32; South Yarra Gallery, Melbourne, 1966 (a group exhibition); The Boxer Collection, University Art Gallery, University of Melbourne, 1-30 August 1974, cat. no. 29; The Boxer Collection, Albert Hall, Canberra, October - November 1977; The Boxer Collection: The Sydney Alternative, The Nolan Gallery, Tharwa, ACT, September 1982, cat. no. 14; Crossing Cultures: Art From the Boxer Collection,
• References:
  Kathie Sutherland, Brett Whiteley: A Sensual Line 1957-67, Macmillan Art Publishing, Melbourne, 2010, p. 286, cat. no. NN3, '1964-65'; (illustrated p. 287)
• Notes:
  Brett Whiteley's Christie series, painted in London in1964-5, consists of a small, yet important, group of works which heralded the beginning of a long preoccupation with themes of death and taboo. For Brett Whiteley, the early 1960s in Europe could be justly described as the 'golden years' of his life and art. In 1960, at the age of 21, he left Australia on an Italian Government Travelling Art Scholarship, a further two grants in 1961 allowed the young artist to extend his sojourn in the Old Continent. In London he sought out and met with Whitechapel Director, Bryan Robertson, who instantly identified the 'golden boy's' genius and characteristic joy de vivre. When recalling his first meeting with Whiteley, Robertson remembered him 'darting about all over the gallery, filled with wit and bravado and enthusiasm for Europe, for Italian painting - for life.'1 Robertson, today remembered for his ability in spotting talent, subsequently invited Whiteley to contribute three works to, the now legendary exhibition, Recent Australian Painting, held at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1961. Whiteley was the success of the exhibition with Untitled White Painting purchased by the Contemporary Art Society, and Untitled Red Painting acquired by the Tate. Robertson continued to be influential for Whiteley's career, recommending him to represent Australia at the Biennale des Jeunes in Paris where he was the awarded the international prize.2 The works inspired and produced out of Australia, Italy, Sigean in France were all met with positive yet standardised critical praise. Whiteley's paintings were recognised for their warm, glowing colours, and the sensual and spiritual qualities of their painted surfaces. These were pleasing, easily accessible images for a public becoming increasingly familiar with the international manner of the contemporary Abstract Expressionists. The paintings preceding the Bathroom and Christie series were related to the American School, both in relation to style and their self-referential nature. Mostly untitled or labelled according to their colour scheme, their subject matter, when relevant, remained of secondary importance. This style was abandoned by the time Whiteley exhibited new works at his one-man shows at the Marlborough New London Gallery in 1964 and 1965. The Bathroom series signalled Whiteley's departure from rigorous, geometric abstraction and into figuration of a sensual and personal note. The paintings of Francis Bacon demonstrated the possibility to straddle successfully between abstract vocabularies and actual, real-world, referents - mainly, the human body. While the Bathroom series signalled Whitley's departure from cool, detached patterned abstraction, to a more personal, intimate and figurative narratives, the Christie series marked Whiteley's analysis of a more socially challenging and provocatory issues, a shift which took critics by surprise. 'The favourable response in British and American reviews to his earlier London exhibitions', noted Whiteley's biographer Kathie Sutherland, 'was a significant factor in determining the controversial character of new work.'3 A decade had passed since the crimes of John Christie, a modern-day Jack the Ripper, were uncovered. Nonetheless, the stories were still fresh in the minds of many Londoners. Newlyweds, Brett and Wendy Whiteley, moved into a flat, not far from Christie's flat at 10 Rillington Place, and Brett quickly became immersed in the story in fine detail; he read through the police files, spoke to people who knew Christie, and even broke into the flat, the scene of Christie's crimes. Although a number of books documenting the case had already been written, the subject remained outside of popular visual culture. It was a story that no artist dared interpret. 'The fact that Whiteley could take a subject so loaded with journalistic associations, and turn it into art' wrote Robert Hughes, was 'the measure of his power of transformation.'4 Following their exhibition at the Marlborough New London Gallery, Rita Nelson, 1964-5, and the fourteen related works that deal with the grisly murders, quickly turned Brett Whiteley into an internationally recognised artist, causing a mild sensation. Although much of editorial attention was fixed on the macabre and perversive theme, the Christie story brought new attention to Whiteley's aesthetic qualities. At this time, he was borrowing from and rehashing ideas of contemporary and earlier models; the London reviewers noted art historical references to Rauschenberg and 'latter-day' Bacons.5 With Bacon himself, surmising to his friend Whiteley: 'you use me the way I use Velasquez.' Whiteley openly declared this stylistic affiliation and made it explicit when he inscribed on the surface of the current work, 'Francis Bacon'. Painted using raw umber, pale yellows and flesh tints, Rita Nelson 1964-5 is an exemplary work from the exhibition that resonates Bacon's legacy. Rita's eyes are showing signs of fading consciousness, her mouth, breathing in the toxic gas which Christie used to render his victims unconscious, is muffled and obscured with layers and marks of paint. Her twisted limbs, curvaceous breasts and disfigured torso are painted with fluidity and sinuous action, yet the thickly textured surface, scratched and engraved, symbolic of the tissue scars which would have been imagined on the bodies of Christie's victims. Barely legible, and hidden underneath the paint surface, is the name, 'RITA', evoking the memory of the victim found months after her death, hidden behind an alcove behind the kitchen cupboard. 'For the viewer' writes Kathie Sutherland on the Christie series, 'the aesthetic experience is both physical and mental, a fusion of experience and imagination, and one that is not necessarily restricted to the evil and violence conveyed.'6 Although Whiteley would continue to explore macabre themes throughout his life, never again would he approach the genre with such methodical, analytical and raw spirit as in the Christie series of works. Held in the Alan Boxer collection for almost half a century, yet widely exhibited and well known, Rita Nelson 1964-5 is a fine example from Whiteley's seminal London period that marked his lifelong interests in the human form. 1 Bryan Robertson, 'The London Years', in Barry Pearce (ed.), Brett Whiteley: Art and Life, The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 2000, p. 9 2 Simon Pierse, Australian Art and Artists in London 1950-1965: An Antipodean Summer, Ashgate, Farnham, 2012, p. 118 3 Kathy Sutherland, Brett Whiteley, A Sensual Line: 1957-67, Macmillan, 2000, p. 114 4 Robert Hughes, 'The Shirley Temple of Australian art; Brett Whiteley's splash at the mainstream', The Bulletin, 18 December 1965, p. 41 5 Eddie Wolfman, 'Zoo Story, Rillington Place', The Arts Review, London, 16 October 1965, p.14 6 Sutherland, op. cit., p. 123.
• Estimate:
  A$150,000 - 250,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.