    brett whiteley  (7 april 1939 â 15 june 1992) was an australian avant-garde artist. he is represented in the collections of all the large australian galleries, and was twice winner of the archibald, wynne and sulman prizes. he had many shows in his career, and lived and painted extensively in italy, england, fiji and the united states. ==early years== growing up in , a suburb of sydney, whiteley was educated at the scots school, bathurst and the scots college, bellevue hill. he started drawing at a very early age. while he was a teenager, he painted on weekends at thurstan and canberra with such works as the soup kitchen (1958). throughout 1956-1959 at the national art school in east sydney, whiteley attended drawing classes. after meeting the director of the whitechapel gallery, he was included in the group show 'survey of recent australian painting' where his untitled red painting was bought by the [[tate|tat
1939_births 1992_deaths Archibald_Prize_winners Australian_bird_artists Australian_painters Deaths_by_heroin_overdose_in_Australia Harkness_Fellows People_educated_at_The_Scots_College Wynne_Prize_winners