38. BRETT WHITELEY

When Brett Whiteley sat down to create his drawing of magnolia flowers in 1980 he was at the very peak of his career. In the second half of the preceding decade he had scooped the pool in the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes and was creating sell-out exhibitions, seemingly without end. Collectors clamoured for his work and he could pick and choose among the best venues in which to show them. He had built an enviable reputation and had the critical acclaim to go with it. He led an international rock star lifestyle and generated the income to carry it along at a frenetic pace. The drug issues that dogged his last years were sufficiently under control, but cracks were beginning to show and he had cause to reflect on some less than wise life decisions.

This drawing is typical of the many charming and highly decorative works he could produce whenever he chose, the sketches and studies for what might develop into major works, but equally could live happily on their own. Preliminary Drawing for Magnolia with Money is however much more than a mere decoration - the objects in this work and the overall composition contain a much darker message, reflecting perhaps the mind-set of the artist in a sober and thoughtful moment after one of his notorious drug-fuelled sessions. The work is the classic vanitas, a reflection on the futility and transience of earthly delights the Latin word translating literally as emptiness, futility or worthlessness. Such works were a clear warning in Christian terms of the biblical aphorism Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. Each object has a meaning redolent with symbolic power in the visual language of the Middle Ages. The main subject, as alluded to in the title, is simply a bunch of magnolias, that most flamboyant and luxurious of flowers, but one quick to fade, wilt and die once cut from the living tree. Whiteleys magnolias will soon drop their petals and be cast back to the earth. The vase in which they rest is decorated with a languid reclining nude, representing the most transient of human emotions, lust and sexual passion. Arranged beside the vase are the symbols of a luxurious life - a string of pearls, cash, jewels, a purse and the opera glasses of a society lady.

A single dice represents the chance decisions which might lead towards, or away from, the life of luxury, while in an earlier life, the striking cone shell once hid a deadly inhabitant treachery, poison and danger behind the mask of beauty. With a final device hed often used, the artist included his own hand, poised to continue the drawing. We are not to be distant observers, removed and insulated from this morality lesson, but, like the artist, we are intimately bound into the story. What he sees, we see and we are complicit in his decisions.

In a final gesture of vanity, Whiteley has left a clue to where his mind was heading. The inscription on the drawing tells us that the future painting was to have Real Roll of Money. Instead of his neat rendering of a roll of banknotes, the final work will include a roll of fifty dollar bills the picture would have a real cash value as well as that which the market places upon it. He had played this game many times before with clumps of his own wiry red hair and real eggs for the nests of birds. Whether it was the vanity proclaimed in the knowledge that he could do whatever he chose, or the simple joke of you aint seen nothing yet, even in the face of the gravest of moral tales Whiteley leaves us with a smile.

Gavin Fry BA [Hons] MA MPhil