Brett Whiteley pondered The American Dream

I finally made it to the Art Gallery to see Brett Whiteley’s most iconic painting The American Dream, American Nightmare. Years ago I’d seen a documentary about the painter and promised myself I’d check out his work if ever I had the opportunity. The plan was to have a quick look then get back to my work commitments. Well that didn’t happen did it.

Brett Whiteley, The American dream (detail), 1968-69, oil, tempera, collage, photography and objects on eighteen wooden panels, 244 x 2196 cm. State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia. Purchased 1978. © State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Made up of 18 huge panels the piece tracks Whiteley’s move from Australia to America after he won a scholarship. The images provide a fascinating insight into how your perspective about a place can change once you immerse yourself in its culture.

Read left to right the first piece is all sunshine and light when Whiteley arrives in America. However the images soon change to fighter jets, red blood, explosions and confusion to reflect the Vietnam war and the assassinations of John F Kennedy and Martin Luther King.

Standing back and looking at the overall effect I pondered whether the painting was also a map of human decline into drugs and madness, aspects of Whiteley’s life that have been well documented. Given this, it was interesting to get right up close to the artwork and notice a tiny scrawled reference that read  1/5/1969 LSD first …. There are several scrawled quotes and comments throughout the piece, the tiny almost invisible ones are the most rewarding when you find them. Comments like …

Brett Whiteley The American dream 1968-69 (detail). oil, tempera, collage, photography and objects on eighteen wooden panels 244 x 2196 cm State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia Purchased 1978 © State Art Collection, Art Gallery of Western Australia

The only solution  rhythm

It is easier to think than feel

Next to ‘Love’ he writes ….by making your life a work of art …. by everyone on earth not speaking for one week … by sustaining.

The panel after the explosion depicts Whiteley’s escape back to Australia and a return to sunshine. With my nose almost on the painting I could make out the word ‘me’ scrawled over the top of a tiny ant that was dwarfed by Uluru (Ayres Rock).

A return to nature appears in the later panels, by virtue of a bird on a nest. But it was the last panel that captivated me the most. After all the mayhem, there on a tranquil blue ocean sat a small blue island. An island that seemed to be glowing.

I stood staring at the small island for some time pondering …

1. Was he trying to tell us that in all the flurry and madness of life what really matters is the quest for peace, both external and internal?
2. Did the island represent his finding of the self?
3. Or maybe I just liked the colour blue.
4. I wonder if different people fixate on different panels.
5. It was sad to read that this piece gave Whiteley so much grief and that he considered himself a failure because he couldn’t find the solution. His very last words on the last panel are … the (attempted) solution.
6. I can only imagine how excited Maria Kubik (senior conservator at AGWA) must have been when she found a previously hidden message. She spent three months lovingly restoring the works. Can you imagine having that job, talk about pressure?

The piece hasn’t been seen in the gallery since 2004. I highly recommend visiting it and if you do make sure you read the explanation of the work (posted on the wall) before you start looking at it. I especially liked the final paragraph on the explanation where it was typed …

This statement employs Whiteley’s own idiosyncratic grammar.

Now there’s a phrase I think I should add to the end of every Ponder Room post.

The exhibition is free (unbelievable) at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and finishes in February 2016.

I also dropped into another exhibition called Screen Space which was well worth a visit. I’ll post about that soon.