A Dictionary for Painting: Margaret Olley, Robert Malherbe, Keith Burt

23 August 2024 - 2 March 2025

Still life with cornflowers - Margaret Olley

Margaret Olley (1923 – 2011)
Still life with cornflowers 1995
oil on board, 66.9 x 90.1 cm
On loan from University Art Collection, Chau Chak Wing Museum, The University of Sydney
Donated through The Hon R P Meagher bequest 2011
© Margaret Olley Art Trust

Margaret Olley’s famous Duxford Street home studio was both her site and subject matter for painting for nearly 50 years. It contained a trove of objects for still life painting – vases, bottles, teapots, fabrics, flowers and furniture. Today, the re-creation of her home studio is on permanent display in the Margaret Olley Art Centre and is a source of inspiration to contemporary artists working in the genre of still life painting.

By invitation, contemporary artists Robert Malherbe and Keith Burt have created new work in response to Olley’s practice and objects contained in her home studio – described by Olley’s friend and biographer, Christine France as ‘a dictionary for painting’.

A Dictionary for Painting includes superb examples of Olley’s work on loan from public and private collections – some of which have not been on public display for many years. Exhibited alongside the contemporary responses by Malherbe and Burt, and the objects from the home studio re-creation, the exhibition offers audiences a fresh perspective of Olley’s incredible legacy in the history of Australian art.

A Tweed Regional Gallery initiative.

Keith Burt Oil Painting Masterclass
Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 March 2025 | 10 am – 4 pm