The heritage of Brett Whiteley.

(From Canberra Times)

By Sasha Grishin Animals and Birds, Brett Whiteley Studio, 2 Raper Street, Surry Hills, Sydney, closes October 6.

IT IS posterity and not contemporaries who will rank artists. Now, exactly 10 years after Brett Whiteley's untimely death at the age of 53, one can start to reflect on the Whiteley heritage. Whiteley's art, like that of one of his idols, Vincent van Gogh, has been to some extent overshadowed by his biography. Even now, controversy and tragedy have not left the Whiteley legend in peace in the decade following his death. First, there was the messy litigation over the estate, then the death of Whiteley's mistress, with whom he shared the final five years of his life, Janice Spencer, in a heroin overdose in 2000.

Most recently, and the most painful tragedy for anyone to bear, was …