PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST
Using artful re-enactments and newly available archival materials, this revelatory documentary recounts the life and legacy of Brett Whiteley, one of Australia’s most celebrated visual artists.
Jasmine Crittenden speaks to producer and executive producer Sue Clothier about the film’s intentions as well as the talent and torments of its famed subject.
As is the case with many famous artists, the myth surrounding Brett Whiteley has a complex relationship with his actual life. For years, the public imagination has played on his charisma, his drug use, his marriage to Wendy Whiteley (née Julius) and his sudden, tragic death at just fifty-three in a hotel room in Thirroul, a coastal town 70 kilometres south of Sydney. However, while fans have admired and critics have debated, wider society has heard only snippets of the artist speaking in his own words.
Whiteley (2017) – co-written and directed by James Bogle, and produced and executive-produced by Sue Clothier – aims to expand the picture. Through never-before-heard interviews, archival footage, photographs and letters as well as images of more than a hundred of Brett’s artworks, the documentary transports viewers into the artist’s intimate world – emotional and physical – while, at the same time, guiding them chronologically through his life story. Complementing his words are interviews with Wendy, whom Brett married in 1962 and divorced
