Brett Whiteley 'Nectar (addiction), Portrait of Paul Verlaine' contemporary accession number: P114-1974

accession number: P114-1974

5 May - 3 June 1979

Best known for landscapes such as this

cultural and emotional life spans decades and has often explored the idea of an innocent and sacred personal world

Brett Whiteley 'Nectar (addiction), Portrait of Paul Verlaine' contemporary accession number: P114-1974Birds recur throughout Brett Whiteleys work, functioning as both motif and metaphor. As a child, he would steal eggs from nests and as an adult, paint them in his work. Forever moving around, he often thought of the flight paths of birds, his representations of them tinged with yearning for freedom and domestic stability. In 'Nectar', the artist creates an intimate and restrained etching of a bird drinking from a small flower. With simple mark making,