Robert Wardrop
|
|||||
Robert Wardrop was an associate of John Breckenreg, the owner of the Artarmon Galleries in Sydney. When I returned to Australia from Europe in 1968, it was Robert who took me under his wing and started my painting career in Australia.
He commissioned this portrait of himself with the proviso that I enter it in that year's Archibald Prize for portraiture. That particular year was particularly difficult because the NSW Art Gallery was under construction, so the Archibald was taking place in (as I recall) the Blaxland Gallery. I think that only 15 paintings were selected for viewing that year. I turned up at the Art Gallery to pick up my painting, as I was sure that it would not have been selected. The staff there became quite frantic when they could not find my work among the rejects. Then one bright staff member looked up the list of selected paintings, and, surprise, my portrait of Robert Wardrop was there. |
|||