Lily Brett (b. 1946) and David Rankin (b. 1946) met in 1979. He was a widower with a young daughter, she was divorced with two children. Both had emigrated to Australia after the Second World War as children. Rankin's wife had recently died, and Brett was the daughter of Auschwitz survivors. Together they inspired each other. Brett, a novelist, essayist and poet, published her first collection of poetry in 1986, The Auschwitz Poems. Rankin, an artist who held his first exhibition at the age of 22 and won the prestigious Wynne Prize for landscape in 1983, illustrated the book. The couple moved to New York in 1989 and the following year Brett published her first novel, Things Could be Worse. She has since published another six novels, nine volumes of poetry, several of them on the theme of the Holocaust, and five collections of essays. Rankin has had many solo and group exhibitions internationally, and his work is held in major Australian collections.
Painted in 1989, this portrait of Brett shows the influence of her personal history on Rankin. A fusion of Western, Indigenous Australian and Asian art traditions, Rankin's work expanded to include Jewish themes after meeting Brett. The portrait is imbued with the darkness of the Holocaust.
Gift of Dr Gene Sherman AM and Brian Sherman AM 2012. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© David Rankin/Copyright Agency, 2021
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