Portrait comes home

BEN Quilty’s famous portrait of Margaret Olley has found its way home to the gallery she inspired and helped build.

The Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre acquired the 2011 Archibald Prize-winner through a major public appeal and on Saturday held its annual fundraising gala, unveiling the new painting as its centrepiece.

Quilty said the work was finally in the right place.

 

“Other museums were interested, but it’s more than fitting – there’s nowhere else it should be,” he said.

“Margaret was adamant about what the function of art should be – getting children inspired, bringing the community together, and making people think outside of their own lives.

“She was very determined to make paintings about beautiful things, to give people respite from the darkness of what’s happening on the TV.”

 

Walking through the gallery, the celebrated artist was visibly moved while passing by Olley’s ‘yellow room’, part of the gallery’s installation recreating the late artist’s home and studio.

“I spent a lot of time in her home, and every time I see it, it’s so extraordinary to see that seat she sat in and drank slimy green juices that someone had told her to drink and smoking a cigarette at the same time,” he said.

“She was often putting me through the wringer about how much I’d drunk the night before and that I needed to make more beautiful things.”

 

Olley frequently counselled the young Quilty on his advocacy of difficult issues.

“She was always telling me to stop taking on causes, and I took that with great respect, but I’ve been very lucky that I’ve never suffered the depressive condition that she lived with – the darkness for her was beyond dark.

“I think it’s a safer space for me to look in the face of those dark things, but I understood why she wanted me not to because she cared about me.

 

“There’s something childishly wondrous about looking in at the house and thinking this great painter sat in that chair.

“It was only after she passed away that I realised the gravitas of having a friend like that and knowing that person and seeing her space recreated is completely mind-blowing.

“As a friend, you see their flaws, as well as she saw mine; you see the whole human and you forget the way she’s remembered as this wondrous philanthropist and supporter of young artists and a creator of beauty, and we need those people.”

 

Included in this exhibition, and on public display for the first time, are 11 still-life paintings by Quilty, paying homage to his friend and mentor, depicting flowers from his garden in vases and vessels that were gifts from Olley.

“These are not typical for me as my art is so responsive to what’s happening, so it’s hard to make beautiful things,” Quilty said.

“I needed a break and needed to switch off and I wanted to be home with my kids.

 

“My son was leaving home to uni, and I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could while I kept working, and that was a nice thing to do. It’s the only time I’ve painted anything like that.”

In his opening remarks at the gala preview showing, Quilty called Olley a quietly ambitious person with a huge vision for the way visual art should be.

“To let kids flood in here and be inspired to think bigger, to change the direction of their lives, to make creative decisions,” he said.

 

“That was her mantra – make things beautiful – and this is one of the only things that I’ve ever made that’s beautiful.

“Margaret wasn’t so happy about my darkness, but to have the painting in a place like this, I’m so honoured for it to be here, and for Margaret to always have respite from the storm.”

For information, visit gallery.tweed.nsw.gov.au