Ben Quilty reflects on his studio practice

Ben Quilty reflects on his work, art practice and career at the opening of his exhibition ‘Quilty’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). Quilty is in conversation with friend and exhibition curator Lisa Slade, Assistant Director, Artistic Programs, Art Gallery of South Australia.

Watch | Ben Quilty in conversation

Quilty gives us an insight into his day, his working practice at his studio in the Northern Highlands of New South Wales, his place of solitude, and his current and future projects. He also fondly remembers Margaret Olley (1923–2011), the subject of his 2011 Archibald winning portrait, and her lasting influence.

Tribute to Margaret Olley

Quilty has created a series of site-specific, hand-drawn portraits of Margaret Olley. These large-scale chalk drawings are based on preparatory sketches he made for the Archibald portrait. Quilty has cast in chalk some of the objects Olley gave him over the years; teapots, jugs, and vases, and used these to produce the wall drawings.

The pastel mural, a gentle palate of pinks and blues, a homage to Margart Olley has been made by using objects cast in chalk and using these cast jugs and vases as drawing tools.

The pastel mural, a gentle palate of pinks and blues, a homage to Margart Olley has been made by using objects cast in chalk and using these cast jugs and vases as drawing tools. / View full image

The pastel mural, a gentle palate of pinks and blues, a homage to Margart Olley has been made by using objects cast in chalk and using these cast jugs and vases as drawing tools.

The pastel mural, a gentle palate of pinks and blues, a homage to Margart Olley has been made by using objects cast in chalk and using these cast jugs and vases as drawing tools. / View full image

Quilty|
29 June – 13 October 2019
Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)
'Quilty' was the first major survey exhibition in a decade of one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary artists, Ben Quilty.

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    Ben Quilty

    ‘Quilty’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) was the first major survey in a decade of one of Australia’s most acclaimed contemporary artists, Ben Quilty. Featuring 70 works from the early 2000s to the present, the exhibition includes the artist’s revisions of the Australian landscape, raw intimate self-portraits and works inspired by recent visits to Lebanon, Syria and Greece. In 2011 Quilty visited Afghanistan as an official war artist and on his return to Australia he sought the company of service men and women who had experienced conflict and human suffering. He painted their raw emotions during individual sittings in his studio in the Northern Highlands of New South Wales. Watch | Ben Quilty invites you to his exhibition at GOMA Captain Kate Porter, after Afghanistan 2012 Self-portrait, after Afghanistan 2012 Also included is Quilty’s expansive Rorschach paintings. Using a psychoanalytic tool designed to evaluate personality and emotional function, these monumental paintings explore the dark undercurrent of the Australian psyche, one haunted by violence and displacement. Watch | The making of Smashed Rorschach 2019 All of the multi-layered works in the exhibition demonstrate Quilty’s signature surfaces, thickly smeared, smudged and caked with rich impasto gestures of paint applied with a bold virtuosity. ‘Quilty’ also features images of the artist’s family and friends and the much-loved portrait of Australian artist Margaret Olley which secured Quilty the Archibald Prize in 2011. Margaret Olley 2011 Quilty 29 June – 13 October 2019 Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) Brisbane
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    Education Resource: ‘Quilty’

    Ben Quilty is one of Australia's most acclaimed contemporary artists whose work hovers between the abstract and the figurative and ranges from portraiture to landscape to still life. Secondary Resources The secondary resource explores Quilty’s visual language across different genres, with separate worksheets provided for each. Primary Resources The primary resource focuses on the theme of portraiture and offers a connection between Quilty’s portraits and those in the Gallery’s Australian Art Collection.
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