Brett Whiteley (1939 - 92) was one of Australia's most successful and popular artists; he was also a quote-generating machine.
"Art is the thrilling spark that beats death - that's all".
In 1962 he became the youngest artist to have a work purchased by London's Tate Gallery and, in 1978, he was the first and only
person to win the three best-known Australian art prizes in the same year: the Archibald, Sulman, and Wynne.
Heroin and drink eroded later years, and he died of an overdose at fifty-three. Luckily: "The promise of death is that I won't care or know or think or feel anything, so what happens to my work is completely meaningless".