Son of the Brush
Signed by the author, Tim Olsen. Free delivery within Australia.
A frank and revealing memoir by the son of Australia's greatest living painter, Tim Olsen. Tim Olsen is the son of arguably Australia's greatest living artist, Dr John Olsen. Son of the Brush is his fascinating, candid memoir of what it was like to grow up in the shadow of artistic genius, with all its wonder, excitement and bitter disappointments.
Tim's childhood was dominated by his father's work, which took the family to Europe and to communities around Australia as John sought inspiration and artistic fellowship. Wine, food, conversation and the emerging sexual freedom of the 1960s wove a pattern of life for the family. It was both the best and worst of childhoods, filled with vibrancy and stimulation, yet fraught with anxiety and eventual sadness as John separated from Tim's mother Valerie and moved away from the family.
The course of Tim's life has been set by the experiences of his childhood, and by the passion for art he inherited from both his parents (his mother was an acclaimed painter in her own right). His life has always been about art, although he has followed a different path from his parents. Having overcome and recovered from addiction, Tim is today one of Australia's most respected gallery owners, with a knowledge of art and artists forged from what is literally a lifetime immersed in the art world.
Son of the Brush is a memoir about a son and his father, and what it takes to forge your own identity and chart your own course in life, but it is also about the wider world of art, artists and the joy, inspiration and sacrifices of the creative life.
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A MEMOIR BY TIM OLSEN
Publisher: Allen&Unwin
ISBN: 9781743318058
ISBN-10: 1743318057
Pages: 496
Format: Paperback
Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.3 cm
Weight (kg): 0.67
Language: English
Tim Olsen is one of Australia's most recognised and respected art identities and successful gallery owners. Son of Australia's national living treasure, artist Dr John Olsen, A.O. O.B.E., Olsen was born into a life of modern and contemporary art.
He established his own Gallery in 1993, which has rapidly expanded to become one of Sydney's leading galleries today, marking his contribution and commitment to the Australian art scene. He not only has supported the careers of many of Australia's leading established artists but also has nurtured the creative lives of many emerging artists who can presently include themselves as being very much part of the art establishment today.
Tim has been a foundation member of the AGNSW for over 15 years and is dedicated to its restoration department and also a major donor and benefactor to the MCA. He has been a patron of the King's School Art Prize for over twenty-five years and since 2000, sponsored the annual Tim Olsen Drawing Prize at UNSW, School of art and design. He is on the foundation board of the University of New South Wales, and on the board of the National Art School in East Sydney.
Tim Olsen at OLSEN Gallery, Woollahra Sydney 2019
“Few can understand both the divine generosity and the absolute selfishness of the artists life . Tim writes with love hilarity and ruefullness from a vantage point of a child in the moment that australian art bloomed and his journey to find his own place in the world as a leading gallerist.”