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(subtle piano music)
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(upbeat music)
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So the two portraits that I've chosen to
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compare and contrast and to bring together
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a self portrait from the National Gallery
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of Victoria's collection by John Brack in 1955.
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And from our collection, a recent edition,
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I've got William Yang, self portrait number two.
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William Yang, I'll talk about him first.
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So he is done it in a sequential
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but also not sequential manner.
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So we've got self-portrait number two here.
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It's always about checking in with him and his identity,
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which as we know was a big part of him as a photographer.
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He was a really big name
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in the seventies and eighties in Sydney.
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He was a gay man and he was really
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into the subcultures specifically of the,
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the Mardi Gra which was beginning at the time
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and those inner circles.
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He photographed his friends and families
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and always had his finger on the pulse.
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Once it hit the eighties,
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he sort of turned and started considering
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himself a lot more
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and his role along the way in terms
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of his own sexual identity and his cultural heritage.
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So here in this portrait, we can see he's talking
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about him learning that he was Chinese.
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That as a little boy, he hadn't really thought about it.
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And somebody said something quite horrible to him
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when he was at school, just written onto the portrait
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and he went home and asked his mom,
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"Mom, I'm not Chinese am I?"
(laughs)
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And his mom had to go,
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"Yes you are."
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And his brother chimes in as you can read through,
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"And you better get used to it."
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Oh.
And so him coming to terms
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with his Chinese heritage was this,
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quite a large thing for him.
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And we see himself portrait,
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we see another self-portrait later on
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where he's coming out as a Chinese man,
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which I think is funny
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because he said that he never came out as a gay man.
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It just came out.
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He was swept up
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in the events of the time.
Yeah.
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So to come out as a Chinese person, but not as a gay man.
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And it feels sort of blasphemous for me
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to talk about William Yang,
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because he speaks so beautifully about himself
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and all throughout his career
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he has engaged in performances when he speaks
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almost to a slide show of his works, behind him
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and he's done a few here at the portrait galleries
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where I do recommend, anybody hasn't seen them,
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you should.
Yes.
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Definitely have a look to hear himself
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talk about his life is just fascinating,
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is just beautiful, I suppose.
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And so comparing it back to the John Brack work,
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this is another portrait of an artist
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checking in with themselves,
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but at a young age.
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So this is in 1955 when John Brack was really picking up
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and getting more and more commissions and exhibitions
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in the art scene, it was a busy time for Melbourne
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in 1955 with the 1956 Olympics about to happen.
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And there were lots of changes in the city.
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These big changes weren't necessarily replicated
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in what John Brack was painting at the time,
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but he's been so well known
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for his depictions of an Austria drab Melbourne.
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Yeah.
(laughs)
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People look at his works and think,
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is it sentimental, satire
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or sympathetic to Melbourne?
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And no one can really agree on what comes forward.
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Looking at this portrait here,
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is it favourable to him?
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Does he present himself in a good light
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or in a very critical light?
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I think he is analysing himself in a little way.
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If you look at his eyes,
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it's certainly not very flattering,
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but the slight turn of his mouth,
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I think really makes for,
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an altogether optimistic portrait perhaps,
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his shaving himself to get ready for a long career
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of being a successful artist.
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Yeah.
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But this painting of a self portrait of John Brack,
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he did about, in the end,
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about 10% of his final output was portraits.
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We had an exhibition at the portrait gallery in 2007,
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portraits by John Brack,
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it was actually our last exhibition
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in the old parliament house
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before we moved to our new building.
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But many people who have been the recipient
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of a John Brack portrait,
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haven't always felt so
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blessed by the commission
(laughs)
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famously galerist and purvist
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from, of the Australian galleries fame.
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There was a portrait of her commission
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by her husband, Tam.
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We've got a portrait of him in our collection as well.
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They were made around the same time.
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But apparently upon receiving the portrait from Brack,
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she burst into tears.
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Oh no.
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And then when it was ever on display in their family home
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it was always a source of great tension and anxiety
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for her and Stewart Purvis,
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who's now the director of Australian galleries
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tells the story of coming home one day
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when he was quite young,
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finding a 44 gallon drum on fire and her mother,
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and so, his mother picking up the portrait and burning it.
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(laughs)
So that portrait is now
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unfortunately destroyed.
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Oh no.
Yes.
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And that went on to, in some ways
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bite the Australian galleries in the bum a little bit
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because later on when George Mora, William, sorry
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John Brack's galerist passed away
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and he was looking for a new representation.
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He did not go to Australian galleries
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because he didn't wanna be represented by
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a couple who burned his portrait.
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That's fair enough.
It is fair enough, indeed.
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(outro music)