Oberon, NSW 1979

BRETT WHITELEY (1939-1992)

Oberon, NSW 1979

pencil on paper
40.0 x 33.0 cm; 58.5 x 50.0 cm (framed)
signed, dated and inscribed lower left: Oberon, NSW/ brett whiteley 79

Provenance:
Miller Gallery, Perth, 1982
Private collection, Sydney

Reference:
Sutherland, K., Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné, cat.114.79 (addendum)

Estimate: $30000 - 40000

Result Hammer: $36000

A practiced set of hand and wrist movements construct large arcs, powerful linear arabesques that jostle, cavort and spread to create a dynamic though unified plane. The arcs gather momentum as they move downwards. Along the way, an otherwise pristine surface is strategically punctuated by natural forms such as ovoid granite rocks, cylindrical horizontal tree trunks and darker, scribbly masses that denote tufts of grass and the presence of imported trees such as poplar and willow. Each of these are deftly placed to echo and attenuate the flow of the river, capturing more fully its primordial energy and natural grace. These are the signature elements of Brett Whiteley’s 1979 ‘Oberon’ series. They are also the key to a fuller understanding and appreciation of his status as one of the most accomplished draughtsmen in Australian art.   

The Oberon plateau is in the Central Tablelands region of New South Wales, 200 kilometres north-west of Sydney. It is home to the Macquarie and Fish Rivers, located on Wiradjuri Country, and bears the Indigenous name Wambuul, or ‘winding river’. For Brett Whiteley this too was a special place. Like Arthur Boyd with the Shoalhaven River and Grace Cossington Smith with Turramurra, both in New South Wales, or Lin Onus and Victoria’s majestic Sherbrooke Forest, Whiteley had a long and close affiliation with the region’s land and waterways. He created some of his finest pieces there by successfully capturing the variegated moods and modulations of nature. The resulting drawings and accompanying written notations became the basis of a group of later etchings and celebrated large-scale paintings.

Oberon, NSW 1979 is from an impressive group of drawings and mixed media works that Whiteley produced in winter of that year.(1) Though relatively small in scale, the drawing feels much larger. It is delicately balanced yet expansive. Whiteley craved inventiveness and displayed this by marrying close observation and experience with intuitive mark-making and free-association. The essential elements are put down in rapid sequence to catch an immediate sensation, thought or feeling.

Whiteley’s stated intention was to spend six months living on a friend’s farm, oscillating between spending time outdoors and working inside in a makeshift studio. He wrote endearingly to his mother: ‘Dear Ning, The landscape really is the most beautiful I have seen in Australia. The property is exactly 11 kms south of Oberon on the Goulburn Road. The Fish River winds its way through the middle, but the most dramatic features are the intermittent strewn boulders, some as big as houses, mostly the size of a small car that gives the dramatic feeling of a Zen garden …’(2)

Whiteley was a frequent visitor to the Oberon plateau from the late 1970s. It was familiar territory. He was re-exploring places near Orange and Bathurst where he had grown up and roamed in his youth. But now he was looking at and experiencing that country through a different lens. Whiteley was aware of the presence of Indigenous people and their relationship to the land, and by extension the struggles of custodianship and dispossession they had endured during the colonial period.(3) He also brought a wide gamut of other philosophies and experiences to his art-making and the celebration of nature and natural form; notably Zen Buddhism and the subtleties of traditional Japanese art.

These complementary facets are on display in the present work. In Oberon, NSW, Whiteley realised his desire to develop a visual language that conveys more universal concerns through the particularity and the nuances of place.

Footnotes:

1. Fittingly, these artworks are mostly held in the Brett Whiteley Studio, part of the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney.
2. Letter from Brett Whiteley to Beryl Whiteley [unposted], quoted in Wilson, G., Rivers and Rocks: Select Works of Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley, The Bundanon Trust, New South Wales, 2001, pp.41-42
3. Wilson, G., Rivers and Rocks: Select Works of Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley, p.9

Rodney James

Rodney James is an independent art consultant who specialises in valuations, collection management, exhibitions, research and writing, and strategic planning for art galleries and museums.

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