John Olsen, one of Australia’s most celebrated artists best known for his landscapes, has died at the age of 95.
Olsen, who won the Archibald prize in 2005 for a self-portrait and was appointed to the Order of Australia in 2001, died on Tuesday evening in his home near Bowral, NSW, surrounded by his family.
“Our father was a titan of the art world and beloved by many in Australia and overseas but to us he was dad, in all the wonderful humaneness, complexity and humanity that word encapsulates,” Olsen’s children, Louise and Tim Olsen, said in a statement on Wednesday. “Painting was our father’s life, and he was painting right up to the last.”
The pair said their father had been looking forward to seeing his work projected on the Opera House sails at Vivid Sydney next month; the family had been intending to book a harbourside hotel for opening night.
“I can watch my work on the Opera House sails in my own private light show in a beautiful hotel room with my family all around me before going to bed and quietly drifting off forever,” Olsen told his children only weeks ago, according to the statement. “What better way to say goodbye?”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese paid tribute to Olsen on Twitter, describing him as “A giant who never lost the twinkle in his eye.
“A man of talent, charisma, generosity and humility, he was a poet of the bush, a truly great explorer and interpreter of the Australian landscape.”
John Olsen was a giant who never lost the twinkle in his eye.
— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) April 11, 2023
A man of talent, charisma, generosity and humility, he was a poet of the brush, a truly great explorer and interpreter of the Australian landscape.
We were so lucky to have him.
May he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/UcPEq1TAt1
Born in Newcastle in January 1928, Olsen went to school in Sydney and studied art at the Julian Ashton art school, the Datillo Rubbo art school and East Sydney technical college before first making his name with works made during three years living in Europe.
On his return to Australia, he cemented his position as one of the nation’s leading artists with his “You beaut country” series and what would be a lifelong interest in representing the landscape and Australian identity.
His landscapes centred on recurring themes such as Sydney Harbour and Lake Eyre, although perhaps his most famous work is a mural, Salute to Five Bells, which hangs in the Sydney Opera House.
“To be an Australian landscape painter is to be an explorer,” Olsen said last year.
“There is so much to look at and observe about the Australian landscape, how it varies from tropical to the coastal fringe, and the interior.
“It’s so multiple. It’s a beautiful animal, that landscape.”
A tribute to his long career will be beamed on to the building’s sails next month during the Vivid Sydney festival.
Speaking to Guardian Australia in 2020 after publishing his 2020 memoir, Son of the Brush, Tim Olsen – who now runs the Olsen gallery – said that his father was a powerful force in his early life and that his painting was “a crucible undisputed in our house”.
“We protected it like a ritual flame that had to be relit each morning,” he wrote in the book, and said “the objects around us educated our subconscious as much as what we were later taught”.
Nick Mitzevich, director of the National Gallery of Australia, told the Sydney Morning Herald that Olsen’s work was “quintessential Australianness”.
“Be it a frog, a landscape, or a simple portrait you knew instantly it was a John Olsen and it was this unique visual language that gave it such power,” Mitzevich said. “He harnessed a great sense of intimacy in his subjects and drew people in and kept them captivated. He was also a poet, a pragmatist, and a man of great wisdom. He was always encouraging everyone he met with his charisma and generosity.”
John Olsen was married four times, including to the artist Valerie Strong, the mother of Tim and his sister Louise, who is also an artist and the co-founder of homewares and jewellery label Dinosaur Designs.
Olsen’s personal life was often tumultuous and included taking his young family to live in a commune in Victoria at the end of the 1960s.
The children saw things “that a child really should not see”, Tim Olsen wrote, including witnessing his father’s extramarital affairs.
“Given Dad’s age however, and the fact his strength has been failing recently, we feared this day was coming,” Tim and Louise Olsen said in the statement sent to media on Wednesday. “But nothing can truly prepare you for the loss of a beloved parent, and Dad was that to us and many others. Beloved.”
