Memorial News

Sydneysider becomes First Female Official Artist Since World War 2

5/12/99 - Sydney artist and Archibald Prize winner, Wendy Sharpe, has been appointed as the Australian War Memorial's first female official artist since the Second World War. Like Rick Amor, who recently returned from Dili as an official artist, Wendy will cover the conflict in East Timor for two weeks in December 1999.

Wendy will fly to Darwin on Sunday, 12 December and go on to Dili on Thursday, 16 December. She expects to return to Australia on 29 December.

Wendy Sharpe

Wendy Sharpe.
Photograph courtesy of The Age

As an official artist, Wendy will be given honorary status as a captain and freedom to move under arrangements agreed by the Army History Unit. She will record all aspects of Australia's involvement in the East Timor crisis. She will be in uniform and attached to the Army Military History Section. During this two-week period, she will do works representing Australian Peacekeepers engaged in operations in Darwin and East Timor. She will also represent their interaction with the local population and with other forces involved in the operation. Wendy will make numerous sketches and drawings on site, completing several major paintings on return.

Australian War Memorial Director, Steve Gower, says Wendy Sharpe's appointment is particularly significant, as she is the first female artist to be selected since 1945. "The official war art scheme is a long-standing tradition initiated during the First World War. The AWM has always sought to appoint the most outstanding artists of the day.

"During the First World War, 16 official war artists were appointed, including George Lambert and Arthur Streeton. During the Second World War, more than 40 artists were appointed, including three women - Nora Heysen, Stella Bowen and Sybil Craig. Nora Heysen was the first woman to be appointed as well as the first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize. Wendy as the winner of the Archibald in 1996 is continuing this tradition", the Director said.

The Director also said: "We are grateful to the Australian Defence Force, which has again offered its full support and cooperation for the artists who will work in East Timor."

Wendy Sharpe was born in Sydney in 1960. She studied at the Seaforth Technical College in 1978, and subsequently attained a Bachelor of Visual Arts from City Art Institute in 1982. She completed a Graduate Diploma of Education in 1983 from the Sydney Institute of Education, a Graduate Diploma in Visual Arts from the City Art Institute in 1984, and a Master of Fine Art from the University of NSW in 1992.

Wendy has been awarded several prestigious and highly competitive travelling scholarships, which provided her with the opportunity for intensive travel and study throughout Europe, and Indonesia during 1987-89. She has held numerous solo exhibitions, as well as participating in significant group shows, such as the Archibald, Sulman and Dobell Prize exhibitions. Wendy has received major awards for drawing and figurative works, including the Sulman Prize in 1986, the Portia Geach Portrait Prize in 1995, and the 1996 Archibald Prize for her self portrait. She has been listed as one of Australia's most collectable younger artists in Australian Art Collector Magazine in 1997 and is represented in institutional and private collections in the UK, Europe and Australia. She has most recently completed the Annette Kellermann murals for the new Aquatic Centre in Sydney.

Although Wendy is the recipient of several significant prizes for her distinctive portraits, the artist sees herself primarily as a figurative painter. Drawing from life is central to her work and this is clearly evident in her strong and skilful rendering of the human form. Her works have a sensual and luxurious quality that have as much to do with her expressive and painterly style as her subject matter. Wendy has a passion and talent as a draughtsperson, combined with a professionalism and commitment to her art. She is respected in the arts community and highly regarded in her position as a lecturer in painting at the National Art School in Sydney.