Significant Artworks
Margaret Olley, 2011
Oil on linen
Ben Quilty painted this portrait of Margaret Olley and said it was becuse she was such an "inspiration" to him.
This portrait won Quilty the Archibald Prize in 2011.
Jimmy Barnes - there but for the grace of God no. 2
Oil and aerosol on linen
Quilty's idea with this painting was to show people how a reformed drug user can turn his life around and become an anti-drug advocate.
Quilty created this piece using his typical impasto style and then pressed another blank canvas ontop of it to create a perfect copy of the image. For this painting Quilty won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
"I wanted it to appear as though Jimmy's head had been peeled back, his skin left behind. And the original image has been destroyed... the glorification of decline."
Oil and aerosol on linen
Quilty's idea with this painting was to show people how a reformed drug user can turn his life around and become an anti-drug advocate.
Quilty created this piece using his typical impasto style and then pressed another blank canvas ontop of it to create a perfect copy of the image. For this painting Quilty won the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize.
"I wanted it to appear as though Jimmy's head had been peeled back, his skin left behind. And the original image has been destroyed... the glorification of decline."
Skull RM
Oil on linen
Ben Quilty has painted numerous amounts of skulls throughout his career. It can be said that these images are trying to portray how young men feel about death and how they quite often continue to take risks without much regard for their own lives.
Torana 2004
Oil on canvas
This painting is only one of a series of paintings of the same car, a Holden Torana, owned by Ben Quilty. These paintings were inspired by Quilty's years as a reckless youth driving this very car. Similarly to his paintings of skulls, his paintings of the Torana can be attributed to the self destructive nature of some young men when they are in their car.