hisson was born in Lilydale, Victoria in 1927 and died in 2022 in Sydney. Finding formal training uninspiring he enrolled in an experimental school at Koornong, Victoria in 1945. He came under the formative influence of the untrained Russian immigrant artist, Danila Vassilieff. Concurrently, Whisson met the older first generation of Melbourne modernists: Albert Tucker and then wife Joy Hester, Sidney Nolan, John Perceval, and Arthur Boyd. Whisson also developed an unwavering interest in politics, literature, and philosophy from
