Art, Life and the Other Thing by Brett Whitely

Art, Life and The Other Thing was awarded the Archibald Prize in 1978. It is composed of three panels. Media used includes: oil, glass eye, hair, pen, ink, plaster, photography, cigarette butts, and a hypodermic syringe.
I relish this artwork. I could look watch it for hours and still find new aspects which I had only skimmed past previous times I had seen the painting. Art, Life is secretive and suspiciously ersatz, feigning innocence. This confuses me, because the imagery is so confronting and seemingly genuine, yet I know that it is hiding something from me. Perhaps it is the look on Whiteley’s face in the third image of the triptych that gives the artwork this quality. What is he thinking? But his ambiguous face is serous. He looks cunning and self-assured; he looks lost and helpless.
The second panel does not evoke such a personal reaction from me. This panel is not for me, anyway. It belongs to Brett. He has asserted his authority in this artwork by placing his photograph i...