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Christina 'Chrissy' Amphlett (1959–2013) was best known for her energetic performances as the lead singer of the Divinyls, which she formed in 1980 with guitarist Mark McEntee. They played in grimy Kings Cross venues before being cast – as a band – by director Ken Cameron in the film version of Helen Garner's book Monkey Grip. The single 'Boys in Town', performed in the film, became a top ten hit, and was followed by their first album, Desperate (1983). Over the next decade, the band became part of the international Australian music assault that included INXS and Crowded House. They remained largely based in Paris and the US, where they scored a hit single in 1991 with 'I Touch Myself'. Amphlett's autobiography, Pleasure and Pain, was released in 2005; two years later, she announced that she suffered from multiple sclerosis, and in 2010 she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died in New York in 2013.
In an interview about her portrait, painted by photorealist artist Ivan Durrant, Amphlett said: 'I suppose in a man's world of rock and roll, I perpetually had a finger raised to people because I copped a lot of flak. So I was often called temperamental … I think you can instantly look at that painting and have a sense of the biography of my life.'
Gift of the artist 2001. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Ivan Durrant/Copyright Agency, 2022
Ivan Durrant (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves: who we read, who we watch, who we listen to, who we cheer for, who we aspire to be, and who we'll never forget. The Companion is available to buy online and in the Portrait Gallery Store.
An interview with the iconic Australian rocker Chrissy Amphlett.
Eye to Eye is a summer Portrait Gallery Collection remix arranged by degree of eye contact – from turned away with eyes closed all the way through to right-back-at-you – as we explore artists’ and subjects’ choices around the direction of the gaze.