Difficult Pleasure: A Portrait of Brett Whiteley - Powerful gift

An engaging documentary that keeps you wondering what Brett Whiteley is going to say next. He is frankly revealing one moment, satirises himself the next, and gets angry when asked to explain the Van Gogh series on camera.

Producer-director Don Featherstone has made films about many artists. His credits include Australia Revealed, The One Percenters and The Beach. The original music by Graham Tardif is particularly effective.

DIFFICULT PLEASURE SYNOPSIS

A biographical documentary that follows Australian artist Brett Whiteley as he travels from his studio in Sydney to London. Whiteley started painting in the 1960s in London and Paris before returning to Sydney. He has painted landscapes, portraits, tributes to other painters like Francis Bacon and Vincent van Gogh and later in life created sculptures. He responds frankly to filmmaker Don Featherstone’s prompting, offering observations on how to get started as a painter, and reflecting on his drug addiction, his self-doubt, and the political content of his paintings.

Notes by Damien Parer

EDUCATION NOTES

This clip shows Brett Whiteley’s artworks in his studio intercut with black-and-white photographs of him as a child. As the camera pans through the studio and over the works, Whiteley describes the challenges of being gifted and of overcoming his addictive tendencies. Finally, the camera reveals him in the studio, rising from a chair and drawing a single line, shown in close-up, on a large blank canvas attached to the wall.

Educational value points

• In this clip film techniques are used to explore themes such as addiction and giftedness, with creative camerawork reflecting Whiteley’s quest to push the boundaries of his talent. The camera roams through the rooms, corridors and staircases of Whiteley’s studio, searching for and finding him. It then focuses tightly on Whiteley’s hand as he draws a long charcoal line. The camerawork creates a metaphor for the artist’s search for meaning and intensifies the expressive potential of the medium by combining images with Whiteley’s verbal reflections. The director provides still moments by interspersing the fluid visual tour of the studio with photographs of Whiteley as a child.

• The clip provides an introduction to one of the best known Australian artists of the 20th century. Whiteley was born in Sydney in 1939 and during his career won many prizes and awards. He is represented in all of Australia’s major collections, and is recognised for his outstanding skill as a draftsman and the fluidity of his style. He was a key figure in the Avant-garde Movement in Australia, and in 1991 was awarded the Order of Australia. He died from a drug overdose in 1992.

• The vast range of Whiteley’s work is shown, with the camera moving through his studio, revealing and lingering momentarily on paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics. The artworks are in colour, monotone and black-and-white, and subjects include human figures, nudes, landscapes, birds, eggs and tributes to other artists. Rembrandt’s face blurs into abstraction in one work.

• Influences on Whiteley’s work are also revealed. The shapeliness and distortion of his nudes suggest Amedeo Modigliani, colours and shapes recall Henri Matisse, and the stretched or twisted nature of some of the subjects is similar to the work of Francis Bacon. The delicacy and lyricism of Chinese calligraphy are also evident. Whiteley flirted with abstraction, surrealism and eroticism, while being labelled a lyrical expressionist.

• The clip offers insight into Whiteley’s struggle with illicit drugs. During the 1970s, he progressed from alcohol to harder drugs and became addicted to heroin. He battled this addiction until he died from an overdose at age 53. In the voice-over accompanying this clip Whiteley describes the affinity he feels with other artists who have similar addictive personalities. Some artists believe that they are at their most creative when under the influence of drugs or mental illness. Whiteley also suffered schizophrenia, which has been linked to illicit drug use.

• Whiteley was born with a remarkable talent and the clip highlights the challenges he faced, with the voice-over revealing the artist as being driven and needing to rebel, test his gift and flirt with self-destruction. Gifted people often feel that their talent is a burden. They may struggle to find balance in their lives and to come to terms with being different from others. Support and education are now available to help gifted children develop coping skills.

• Whiteley’s studio, home and practice were all contained in a building that formerly housed a T-shirt factory in Raper Street, Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney. Whiteley bought it in 1985 and converted it into a studio and exhibition space. He lived in the factory from 1988 until his death in 1992. The camera’s tour of the studio gives an insight into the ways Whiteley worked, showing unfinished canvases and photographs and stimulus materials displayed on the doors and walls. The studio is now the site of the Brett Whiteley Museum, which is open to the general public, offering changing exhibitions of the artist’s works, as well as educational programs.

• The clip presents the work of Australia director Don Featherstone, who is a respected documentary maker. His other work includes Babakiueria, The Beach, The One Percenters and a series on talented artists titled Creative Spirits.

Education notes provided by The Learning Federation and Education Services Australia