Jenny Sages (b. 1933), artist, was born to Russian Jewish parents in Shanghai and came to Australia with her family in 1948. After studying art in Sydney and New York, Sages worked as a freelance illustrator and travel writer for books and fashion magazines including Vogue Australia. Following a trip to the Kimberley in 1983, Sages decided to become a full-time artist, concentrating on portraits, abstract and landscape works. A specialist in the medium of encaustic wax, since 1985 she has worked in a studio atop her home in Double Bay; she has held regular solo exhibitions since 1988. From 2010 to 2013 the National Portrait Gallery exhibition Jenny Sages: Paths to Portraiture toured around Australia. Sages won the Portia Geach Award in 1992 and 1994 and the Wynne Prize in 2005, and has been a finalist for the Archibald Prize twenty times.
Sages met her husband Jack in 1954 and it was love at first sight. For 55 years, she had his unwavering support. After Jack died in 2010, the couple's daughter Tanya photographed the widowed artist as she sat weeping. Later, Sages used Tanya's photographs as the basis for this self portrait, which won the 2012 Archibald Prize People's Choice award. Explaining the work's title, Jenny said simply 'Anything else I would paint … seemed trivial to me'.
Purchased 2018
© Jenny Sages
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