Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Thursday 14 April
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
If you remember the 1980s in Australia, you remember Ken Done.
His bold, buoyant works of art – especially his sunny depictions of Sydney landmarks – are linked in the minds of many Australians with a spirit of 1980s optimism and entrepreneurialism. People decorated their homes, their beds and their bodies with Done’s colourful paintings, prints and designs. His name became a much-loved and instantly recognisable global brand. These days, the generation of kids that coveted Ken Done doona-covers and beach towels are adults leading a cult revival. They want Done on their walls, and in their wardrobes.
But Done’s story is not all glittering harbour scenes and vibrant, tropical fish-printed boardshorts. His new memoir, A Life Coloured In, tells the story of his early career in advertising and ascent to global fame – but also of stressful legal cases and a shock cancer diagnosis. Through it all, Done has continued to paint, attaining overdue critical acclaim for many of his recent works.
In April, Done is coming to the Wheeler Centre to talk art, design and the creative impulse. ‘Whatever endeavour you are doing, once you get past 70, you should be taking more risks’, Done has said. ‘You shouldn’t be slowing down. You should be winding up.’
Featuring
Ken Done
Ken Done’s first solo exhibition was held in Sydney in 1980. Since then, he has held over 50 one-man shows, including major exhibitions in Australia, Europe, Japan and the USA. His work has been described as the most original style to come out of Australia, and his paintings are in collections throughout the world.
Born June 29, 1940, in Sydney, he left school at 14 to enter the National Art School in East Sydney. After five years study, he commenced a highly successful career as an art director and designer in New York, London and Sydney. At the age of 40, he made the decision to leave the industry and devote himself to painting full time. Since then, his works have been shown in the Archibald, Sulman, Wynne, Blake and Dobell Prizes.
Working predominantly in oils and acrylic, Done takes inspirations from diverse sources – the ebullience of the sea and sky, the transcendent emotions of a quiet garden, Aboriginal art, Japanese poetry, the urban shout of Sydney, where he makes his home – but the sensibility that underlies his work is uniquely his own.
This original art has become the creative source of a unique and now famous Australian brand. It began with a small run of t-shirts printed with a beautifully simple, bold drawing of Sydney Harbour. This original image caught the attention of Sydneysiders and visitors alike and has gone on to become an icon of Sydney, and an icon of Done. He is renowned for his bold images of identity and his unique reproduction of these images on clothing, homewares and prints. Vogue once said, 'You can hang a Done on your wall or a Done on yourself'.
Major projects in a very diverse career include the painting of a BMW Artcar, joining such artists as Andy Warhol, David Hockney, Roy Lichtenstein and Alexander Calder. An original Ken Done work featured on the cover of the weekly Japanese magazine Hanako for over ten years, and in recent times Ken has also become involved in the movement toward a new Australian flag. In 1999, Done was asked to create a series of works for the Opening and Closing Ceremony programs of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.
Ken created the total decorative scheme for the Garden Restaurant at the Powerhouse Museum, in Sydney and in 1994, a major retrospective – 'Ken Done: the art of design' – was mounted by the Powerhouse. In 2002, the Museum acquired his commercial art and design archive of more than 300 items.
Although he has worked extensively for many charitable organisations, the welfare of underprivileged children has always been a special concern of Ken's. Father of the Year in 1989, Ken Done has been an Australian Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF since 1988.
Ken’s work is now widely recognised as holding a unique position in Australia’s cultural heritage. In 1992, he received the Order of Australia (AM), for services to Art, Design and Tourism. In many parts of the world, Ken Done has come to symbolise Australia and Australians: creative, optimistic and bold.
Penny Modra
Penny Modra is the editorial director at The Good Copy, a Melbourne-based writing school and consultancy. She is a regular ‘grammar enthusiast’ guest on ABC Radio Melbourne and teaches editing in RMIT University's Professional Writing and Editing program. Penny writes occasional features for the Guardian, Vice Australia, Frankie and Smith Journal.
Before co-founding The Good Copy, Penny spent seven years as editorial director of The Thousands city guides nationally and as a visual arts reviewer for the Age and the Sunday Age. For fun, she has copyedited everything from Head Full of Snakes magazine to PhDs that are due 'quite soon'.