MAITL AN D R EGIONAL ART GALLERY
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Words
25 MAY — 19 A UGUS T 2018
Foreword — Brigette Uren Secrets — Kim Blunt ESSAY — Megan Monte
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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The Ritual — Wendy Sharpe
Spencer and Lloyd Harvey, photograph
Artworks 6—7 8 — 11 12 — 21 60 — 61
Secrets ME Artist’s travel books Book of Constant Stars Wanderlust Theatre of Dreams Circus Night Circus
4 — 5, 15, 62 — 63 6, 11 — 12, 15, 21, 60 — 61 22 — 27 18 — 19, 28 — 29 30 — 36 38 — 50 52, 56 — 58 54 — 55
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Secrets drawing installation, dimensions variable detail
F OR E WORD — BRIGETTE UREN
Me
paper mache and mixed media sculpture, detail
Secrets began as a conversation over a Portuguese tart in 2016 as Wendy and I judged the Newcastle Emerging Art Prize. What followed was a series of chance happenings: a conversation with Wendy’s Sydney art dealer, Randi Linnegar of King Street Gallery (whom I warmly acknowledge as greatly supportive of this project), a visit to Wendy’s studio and an intimate look at her concertina sketch books (extraordinary works of art in their own right). This led to both the Gallery’s acquisition of the 7.5m-long Circus Oz, 2016 – possible only due to the support of the family of the late Dr Peter Elliott AM – and to this significant Secrets exhibition in 2018. MRAG has a solid history of presenting projects by leading female Australian artists, having hosted several in recent years, notably Vicki Varvaressos and Kerrie Lester – interestingly both figurative painters – together with whom, Wendy Sharpe now completes the trilogy. Regardless of the artist or genre concerned, every one of these exhibitions has offered an insight into the artists themselves and what they choose to reveal as part of their practice.
It has been said that everyone has three lives: a public life, a private life and a secret life. Wendy Sharpe’s Secrets exhibition, however, unabashedly invites us into all three of her lives, forming in its entirety a complete portrait of the artist. With the greatest admiration, I acknowledge Wendy’s contribution to this exhibition – indeed to the cultural fabric of Australian life. She gives of herself without reservation, both in and outside her paintings, and I am delighted MRAG is able to share this experience with you.
SEC RETS — KIM BLUNT
Wendy Sharpe is an artist singularly driven by her art and her artistic practice. While this would be a significant claim to make of any artist, in Wendy’s case it is amply proven through a lifetime of celebrated creative output. Although Wendy’s home is separate from her studio, she did for a time even live in her studio such is her single-mindedness. When Wendy isn’t there or at home she is often on the road either in Australia or overseas. She and her partner, fellow artist Bernard Ollis, own an apartment in Paris, which they visit a couple of times a year to work. They are often also found in many other parts of the world, and not always working together. For Wendy, travel is not so much about the luxuries of the modern tourist circuit or visiting exotic places, as an exercise in observation; Wendy is always looking. Whether sitting in a café or exploring a strange land, Wendy is invariably making a record of what she sees in her many diaries or on scraps of paper, which are later found on the walls and floor of her studio. I know – I’ve seen them.
What a privilege it is to see first-hand how an artist does what they do. So rarely are we allowed behind the scenes – the ‘back of house’ as they say in theatre. What we usually see is the finished product, defined, refined and re-defined. Those visual 'thought bubbles' or ideas are mostly hidden to us; we don’t see the drafts, the process, the thinking – nor, dare I say, the ‘mistakes’. We don’t see when an artist pushes an idea too far or, indeed, witness their joy in learning how far they can push their work. For this exhibition, Wendy allows us to experience her world, full circle. Whilst this may not be entirely new for Wendy, it does take on a special intensity as she draws and paints directly on the Gallery walls in full view of the public. We see Wendy’s world take shape in many of her pictures, where she takes centre stage, brush in hand as she marks the canvas, all the while facing her audience, looking at them squarely as she works away.
Wild detail, Hoops Wild Hoops pagedetail, 9 page 9 Me detail,Me pagedetail, 11 page 11
Wendy welcomes this scrutiny of her private creative world, of her studio, her life and especially herself, central as she is to many of her paintings. We are constantly invited into her imagination – if we choose to enter – populated equally by far-flung destinations or, more closely imagined, dark Sydney streets. But there is always balance in the world of Wendy Sharpe, there has to be. Alongside the shadows there is also the exuberance, colour and joy of the theatre of the everyday. Wendy is no ‘shrinking violet’; in her work she looks you in the eye and challenges you to come with her as she explores the space between what is real and what is imagined, what we are meant to see and what we are usually not permitted to see – that which is considered secret.
Secrets is an exhibition featuring a selection of artworks by acclaimed Australian artist Wendy Sharpe. Well known for her large-scale work, Sharpe draws upon the public and private realms of everyday life. This exhibition includes a selection of drawings and travel diaries, an immersive wall installation and an eclectic sculpture of the artist herself.
Me
detail, page 12
Emotion and imagination, both in their essential forms and various manifestations, are at the heart of Sharpe’s practice. Her drawings undulate through a psyche that is familiar to us while being distinctly her own. This state of awareness holds a degree of uncertainty and unexpectedness, arousing our desire to use our imagination. With tenderness and originality, Sharpe’s artworks capture both moments in time and temporal gestures, and we see these unfold within the exhibition. This essay will visit each of the artworks, incorporating Sharpe’s voice throughout while referencing other artworks to contextualise the generosity of her life-long practice.
Sharpe grew up in a creative family; her father was a historian and author and her mother enjoyed art, also spending some time at art school. Growing up in beachside Avalon in Sydney’s north her parents encouraged her to pursue her dreams. At a young age, Sharpe fell in love with art.
I was lucky to have incredibly supportive parents; both wanted me to have the opportunity to develop as an artist. My father, the historian Alan Sharpe, was a writer, and wonderfully imaginative, creative and poetic. We were very close, and we would have lengthy passionate discussions together.
Following her secondary studies Sharpe went to art school, which felt very natural as it was in creating art that she found confidence and a community that she felt was her own. Early in her studies Sharpe adopted an impressive work ethic, dedicating much of her time to cultivating a practice that centred on representations of the body and the theatrics of its presence through history, especially as seen in Western Romanticism; this she began to juxtapose with contemporary narratives of the social body. Shortly after finishing art school, Sharpe was awarded the Sir John Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW in 1986 at the relatively young age of 26. Later that year she received the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship in painting and a three-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Winning these awards enabled me to travel out of Australia for the first time, as there is no way I could have afforded it otherwise. I was the ideal recipient of this scholarship as I spent much of my time in art galleries and museums, all the while filling masses of sketchbooks. It was an exciting opportunity to see paintings I had only seen in books; a very different and important experience.
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Secrets and ME installation at Juniper Hall, Sydney Her Paris residency turned into an 18-month sojourn through Europe, New York and the United Kingdom. In the East End of London she lived in a council flat with her grandfather, whom Sharpe had never met prior to her stay. She felt it was important to travel to the places where her parents grew up before they emigrated. This time for Sharpe was crucial in cementing her acquired knowledge of the arts with lived experience, which she documented in the visual diaries now housed on shelves and tables in her inner-west Sydney studio. Many of these diaries reveal the initial drawings of some of her most acclaimed paintings. Drawing table, Venice
Continuing to use travel as a catalyst, Sharpe took to producing artworks with radiant energy, filling masses of sketchbooks, loose pages and diaries that would later make up some of the series in this exhibition, and others that would inform much larger artworks.
Wendy Sharpe on her balcony, Paris
Sharpe continues to travel the world and has a studio in Paris, where she spends time every year with her partner and fellow painter Bernard Ollis.
I own an apartment in the non-touristy bit of Montmartre. It’s on the top floor with a wonderfully long balcony. We usually go and work there twice a year. Paris itself is endlessly beautiful and there’s always a fabulous exhibition to see. It's also important to go and visit my favourite paintings there.
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On first inspection, the collective presences of the artworks in this exhibition feel similar; there is a strong fluidity between pieces. A visual language appears as an index of possible stories, emerging quickly and allowing the artworks to be pieced together to create an anecdote of our own experience. It is this relationship between the artworks that initially hides the distinction between them, allowing only later a subtle divergence to be revealed.
What we feel with a sense of insistence is her sensibility towards the real and imagined, an insistence that is palpable. By manipulating the physicality of the female form, the body is untouched by imperfections that might otherwise provoke in us an emotional response. Our attention is drawn to the figure, which at times appears aware of our presence, and at other times is completely unaware, innocently ignorant of our gaze. Sharpe has complete ownership of the way in which she interprets the real and unreal states of existing, yet there is something very familiar in her perception of both states. What is enticing is the vibrancy and playfulness she creates and this allows the artworks to render our human condition and behaviour tangible.
Theatre of Dreams detail I have often made work about being an artist and living between the mundane and the fantastic, exploring the many layers and contemplating how we can exist within them.
This insight into Sharpe’s life and the motivation behind her practice informs the experience of this exhibition; there is a sequence of narratives relating to time, place and memory intended to be interpreted by individual experience. As the title suggests, the Wanderlust series of gouaches is inspired by Sharpe’s desire and impulse to wander the world. Visions of Antarctic landscapes, brightly coloured saris, Orientalpatterned dresses, lines of tourists, bustling cafés, lonely beachsides and haunting gothic architecture all come to life in the artworks.
The series Secrets is a multitude of small works on paper – some fragments of ideas, some more fully realised imagery. It asks us to interpret the work according to our own lived experience and, in turn, create a personal narrative that is relevant only to ourselves.
Throughout the exhibition there is a lack of dates on the artwork labels; all the artworks are left intentionally undated, suggesting a time void in which the works can exist free of chronology. Theatre of Dreams – a series of unframed works on paper that was previously exhibited at Drawing Projects UK – resonates with this timelessness. This series best reveals how Sharpe provokes a state of consciousness in the viewer: our perception turns dream-like while we navigate feelings of intimacy, foreignness and naivety. Washed with mysterious transparency, each artwork has a heightened sense of movement that is all the more enduring because there is no end point, no final resting.
Wendy Sharpe in Florence
Sharpe has, on several occasions through artist residencies locally and abroad, been challenged to depart from this position of existence. Nuanced with innuendo and provocation, the large-scale artwork Night Circus emerged from sketches made during her most recent residency with Circus Oz (2015–2016) in Sydney and Melbourne. Previous residencies have taken Sharpe to the far corners of the world, including Antarctica, Cairo and Timor Leste. Over many visits to the circus Sharpe captured and drew dress runs, backstage antics and the general society of the performers and crew. The inclusion of these artworks reminds us of Sharpe’s early explorations of the body and ongoing interest in performance, as well as demonstrating her capacity to capture the robust physicality and sheer energy of complex moving forms in a fleeting moment.
Being somewhere out of your own country is always stimulating, especially if it is a very different culture. It not only makes you see things freshly, but it also makes you put your own life in perspective.
During a trip with friends traversing the Silk Road, Sharpe came across a book titled Book of Fixed Stars by Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, written around 964 AD. The unusual arrangement of words in the title and the universal nature of its meaning remained with Sharpe and inspired the name of the series Book of Constant Stars.
Book of Constant Stars detail
Book of Constant Stars in Wendy's Paris studio
A sense of mischievous play emanates from Sharpe’s performative drawings. Surrealist representations of the body are delivered with acerbic wit, bringing pages and canvases to life directly on gallery walls. In the third iteration of this process Sharpe skilfully recreates a woman in a red dress. Grand and powerful, the woman stands true to life and is set within a composition full of mystery. On only two other occasions has Sharpe produced temporary work on this scale. In August 2016 at the Yellow House Gallery in Sydney, Sharpe drew over three nights for a live audience, accompanied by the Australian Art Quartet. Performing again with the same ensemble, Sharpe captured a Hogarth-inspired Sydney live on stage at the City Recital Hall. The act of making has always been instinctive to Sharpe. This exhibition, which is distinctly about drawing, affords Sharpe the freedom to include experimental artworks produced over time and also live in the gallery.
I have always drawn on anything and everything. Exhibiting in a museum or public space gives me the freedom to test the limits of my practice in a more experimental way. It’s also an opportunity to bring several works together, especially my drawings.
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Me
detail, page 21
Wendy Sharpe and unknown friend, Mexico
It is this level of experimentation that builds a sense of anticipation and we, as the audience, are part of Sharpe’s process in this enlivening experience. The exhibition Secrets only scrapes the surface of a rich practice spanning over 30 years. As an exhibition of artworks on paper, Secrets is a testament to Sharpe’s prolific dedication to working and experimenting with form and presentation. You are invited to look, and then look again, once more with feeling.
Tales of drawing and imagination
Tales of drawing and imagination
detail, page 22—23
page 24—25, top
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day of the dead page 26—27, top
Venice
when the hands of night reach out
page 24—25, lower
page 26—27, lower
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All artist's travel books, gouache on paper (folding book), dimensions variable
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Book of Constant Stars mixed media, works on mixed paper 15 x 15cm each, detail, page 28—29
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Mother and Son 15 x 20cm page 30, top
Looking Back (Yellow and Green) 15 x 20cm page 30, lower
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Easter procession with women and bridge, Spain
Landscape with bees Flinders Rangers
25 x 35cm page 32, top
14 x 33cm page 34—35
28 x 35cm page 32, left, lower
Two People with red and green aurora
22 x 29cm page 32, right, lower
Fragments
Red Gloves, the Metro
Devil Horns Day of the Dead
Lost Tourists 28 x 36cm page 33, top
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19 x 19cm page 36, top
15 x 15cm page 36, lower
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The Gate, India 18 x 26cm page 33, left, lower
Angular Clouds 15 x 15cm page 33, right, lower
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All artworks gouache on paper
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Drawing from memory
The colours of Longing
The Car is still there
page 38
page 42, left, top
page 46, left, top
Me and skeleton
page 42, left, lower
page 46, left, lower
page 42, right, top
page 46, right, top
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page 40
Love Sick page 41
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Silence
Inside and out
Across the Salty Sea page 42, right, lower
Those Two
page 43, left, top
Longing
page 43, left, lower
Within me, I am a thousand others
Restless
Secret Life
sadder than a ticking clock
page 46, right lower
The Crowd
page 47, left, top
Sleepless Night page 47, left, lower
Clouds
page 43, right, top
page 47, right, top
page 43, right, lower
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page 47, right, lower
Elsewhere
Waking Dream
page 44
page 48
page 45
page 49
Shadow maker
White Light
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By the Fire
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Baby the Rain Must Fall
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On the Street page 50
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All artworks, mixed media on Arches paper, 77 x 56cm
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46
49
Unicycle pas de duex
Marcel and Marguerite
Fire
page 52
page 56
page 58
Night Circus
page 57, top
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pastel on paper 90 x 227cm page 54—55
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Couple with green light
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Wild Hoops detail, page 9 and page 57, lower
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All artworks, gouache on Fabriano paper, 77 x 56cm (excluding Night Circus)
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WE N DY SH ARPE | SEC RETS
Maitland City Council acknowledges the support of our MRAG Patrons: Ray Wilson OAM and Pat Corrigan AM, MRAG Partners, sponsors, members and volunteers. The Maitland community warmly extends their gratitude to Wendy Sharpe, without whom this project would not be possible. In equal measure we distinguish King Street Gallery on William, The late Dr Peter Elliott AM, Bernard Ollis and Frederika McKenzie. MRAG would also like to thank the following volunteers who assisted Wendy during her artist in residency at MRAG; Dorothy Baker, Ann Caddy, Jane Harvey, Susan Grace-MacDonald, Wendy Peacock, Vanessa Turton, Deborah Van Heekeren and Jennifer Wood.
Director
ESSAY
PRINTING
Brigette Uren
Megan Monte
WHO Printing
Kim Blunt Wendy Sharpe
Anne McLaughlin Cheryl Farrell Nikolas Orr Sandra Tweedie
978-0-6481664-1-2
EXHIBITION CURATORs
video documentation John Cliff
CATALOGUE First published in 2018 by Maitland Regional Art Gallery (MRAG) PO Box 220, Maitland NSW 2320 mrag.org.au
Me detail, page 60—61 Secrets detail, page 62—63
EDITING
DESIGN
Clare Hodgins
PHOTOGRAPHY
Clare Hodgins Linden Pomaré Lloyd Harvey Martin Lane Peter Jones Spencer Harvey Steven Cavanagh
ISBN
Published by
Maitland Regional Art Gallery to accompany the exhibition: Wendy Sharpe | Secrets
Exhibition dates
25 May — 19 August 2018
© Maitland Regional Art Gallery All images copyright of the artist Proudly printed in Australia
Wendy Sharpe is represented by King Street Gallery on William, Sydney
Maitland Regional Art Gallery is a service of Maitland City Council and supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
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Red Night — Cirque d'Hiver
gouache on Fabriano paper, 77 x 56cm, back cover