Dimensions
227 x 158 x 32mm
In 1957 a Sydney businessman, recognising the immense talent of the young John Olsen, paid him to go to Majorca and paint. The businessman sold most of the paintings for a profit and Olsen was transformed by the influences of European art and the Mediterranean.
In Majorca Olsen began a journal, which he has continued ever since, a fluid combination of words and drawings recording the events of an extraordinarily rich life. This book is based on these journals, and reproduces many of the drawings from them.
Olsen's life has been marked by a generosity of spirit, by the vitality of his friendships with men, including many of Australia's leading painters, and with women, and by his personal struggles of Australian landscape painting. These include his Lake Eyre paintings and more recent works such as 'Golden Summer', 'Clarendon'. Olsen's mural 'Salute to Five Bells' is in the Sydney Opera House.
John Olsen is Australia's greatest living painter.
