BRETT WHITELEY Catalogue Raisonné : 1955 – 1992.

Melbourne : Schwartz City, 2020. Seven volumes, quarto, lettered white cloth, in bespoke white lettered slipcase, over 2400 pages, fully illustrated. Limited to 1000 numbered copies. Housed in the publisher’s double walled mailing carton. The size of the slipcase is 225 mm tall, 403 mm wide, 203 mm deep.

The weight of this set in the shipping carton is 23.6 kgs, the books themselves in their extravagant slipcase are 22.4 kgs. Originally released at the price of $1500, in 2024 the publisher raised the price to $2,000 as the edition sells through.

‘Compiled by art historian Kathie Sutherland over seven years, this seven-volume set of cloth-bound books is presented in a deluxe, elegantly finished slipcase and presents more than 4600 artworks, including hundreds of never-before-published works. Weighing 21 kilograms and totalling 2400 pages, this catalogue Brett Whiteley: Catalogue Raisonné 1955-1992 is an unprecedented publishing event that confirms Whiteley’s enduring significance as a visionary force of Australian art. Volumes I, III and IV hold paintings and drawings from the 1950s to the 1990s; Volume II contains exquisite concertina fold-outs of the mammoth Alchemy and The American Dream; Volume V contains Whiteley’s prints; and Volume VI compiles his ceramics and sculpture. A final book, Volume VII, holds essays, a cataloguing text, an exhibition history, an artist’s biography, a bibliography and an index of persistent themes that lend insightful form to the expanse of Whiteley’s rich and varied oeuvre. This one-off print release is limited to 1000 copies, with each individual set foiled with a unique number in the series and presented in bespoke packaging.’ – the publisher

Unique in the history of Australian art publishing, an extraordinary academic publication and truly the essential reference on one of Australia’s most significant artists.