Tim Olsen: My mother's wise words taught me why we love art
The Sydney Morning Herald, Sunday LifeRobyn Doreian
12 December 2020
Tim Olsen / Occupation Owner Olsen Gallery / Age 58 / Status In a new relationship / Best known for His art gallery
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Great holiday reads, from page-turners to perfect prose
The Sydney Morning HeraldGeorgie Gordon
12 December 2020
Whether at the beach, the park or lazing in bed, these are the books you’ll want to keep returning to over the break.
Non-fiction
Son of the Brush
by Tim Olsen (Allen & Unwin)
Olsen’s memoir about the joys and challenges of growing up in the shadow of his famous artist father, John, is a fascinating read. In addition to all the juicy art world anecdotes, it’s a candid look at his journey from “free range” child to respected art dealer.
Booked up for Summer: Son of the Brush
HIGHLIFE MagazineDecember 2020
Son of the Brush is Tim's memoir, starting with his earliest memories when the family lived in Watsons Bay and ending in 2020 with a bough of COVID-19.
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Soho House online conversation between Maroon 5's Jesse Carmichael and artist Paul Davies
iCloud7 December 2020
Last week, artist and Los Angeles member Paul Davies, whose mural overlooks the rooftop pool at Soho Warehouse, opened a new exhibition at Peter Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena. To celebrate, Maroon 5’s Jesse Carmichael curated a playlist based on the paintings. Here, the friends discuss how the collaboration came about and the process of translating artworks into a soundscape.
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Son of the Brush: A Memoir by Tim Olsen, behind-the-scenes of the art world
The AustralianAshleigh Wilson
5 December 2020
Tim Olsen gives an insider’s view of the art world and living in the long shadow of his famous father John.
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Zoe Young's Rustic Bowral Cottage is an Artist's Paradise
4 December 2020Welcome to The Makers. Each week, we're celebrating
innovators, artisans and crafters of all types, taking you on a private
tour on their creative spaces.
For this installment, we head to
Bowral in New South Wales, where artist Zoe Young has transformed a
cottage into a creative hub for herself and her family.
Tim Olsen Son of the Brush Review and Interview
Living Arts CanberraBarbie Robinson
2 December 2020
Described as a memoir, Son of the Brush does indeed introduce us to some of the key figures of the art world in Australia in the 20th and 21st century, in the context of the life of the author, son of painter John Olsen.
Listen to the interview here
Image: Tim Olsen at the book launch, AGNSW Photo: Wesley Nel
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HOT OFF THE PRESS
The Sydney Morning HeraldNicole Abadee
5 December 2020
Summer is upon us and the holidays beckon. What better way to further warm the heart than with a good book on the beach?
Son of the Brush, the frank memoir of Tim Olsen, John Olsen’s son, charts his tumultuous life from the highs of mixing with Australia’s artistic and social elite, to the lows of his battles with alcoholism and depression.
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Sophie Cape's exhibition 'Flash Point'
Richard MorecroftNovember 2020
Sophie Cape’s paintings are elemental – seemingly made of fire and snow, earth and blood. And the truth is not far from that; the huge works are impregnated with the ash and soil and bones and metal fragments on the ground in the locations where the works were created. As a past Olympic-level athlete, Sophie’s process is explosively physical, with violently cathartic struggles on the canvas. But as she explains to Richard Morecroft, the controlled mark of her hand is in evidence too, with subtle drawing and mysterious calligraphy.
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Sophie Cape Flash Point
Sophie Cape video tour
November - December 2020Video tour of Sophie Cape's 2020 exhibition at OLSEN Gallery, Woollahra
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Sophie Cape Flash Point
Tim Olsen on growing up with a famous father, artist John Olsen
Radio NationalHilary Harper on Life Matters
24 November 2020
John Olsen has been called "Australia's greatest living artist" but what was it like growing up within his orbit?
Art dealer and gallery owner Tim Olsen reflects on his childhood and life in a revealing and poignant memoir, 'Son of the Brush.
Guest: Tim Olsen, author of 'Son of the Brush'
Duration: 13min 8sec
Broadcast: Tue 24 Nov 2020, 9:26am
Tim Olsen's memoir of life with his famous dad is a fascinating insight into the Sydney art world
Canberra TimesSasha Grishin
21 November 2020
Tim Olsen is the son of the high profile artist, 92-year-old John Olsen. As painters of his father's generation considered themselves as "brothers of the brush", Tim Olsen, by extension, calls himself a "son of the brush". This is a personal memoir - lively, chatty and quite readable.
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Eva Nolan Exhibition Video
November 2020Video tour of Eva Nolan exhibition at OLSEN Annexe, Woollahra in November 2020
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Eva Nolan Biophilia
My father, my sadness: John Olsen's son paints a portrait
The AgeHelen O'Neill
12 November 2020
John Olsen is the subject of an explosive memoir penned by his son, who accuses the artist of multiple infidelities and building his creative career at the expense of the family he left behind.
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Tim Olsen on getting out from under the shadow of his famous father John: 'He’s not a demigod'
The GuardianSusan Chenery
10 November 2020
John Olsen’s Australian landscapes captured the world’s imagination but to his son the artist was akin to a deity – until he wasn’t.
Where there is artistic acclaim there is often collateral damage. History is littered with redundant muses, discarded partners, children left behind. It can take a certain ruthlessness to live for art, in a heightened state of intensity, making it the only thing that matters.
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Sex, alcoholism, abandonment: growing up with Australia's most famous living painter
The Sydney Morning HeraldHelen O'Neill
5 November 2020
Review of Son of the Brush, A Memoir by Tim Olsen
Tim Olsen – international art dealer, philanthropist and newly minted memoirist – wants to show me a painting. Our location is his apartment, high above his gallery in the prosperous Sydney precinct of Woolahra, and the image depicts Lake Hindmarsh in western Victoria's Wimmera.
The 92-year-old who created this half a century ago is routinely described as Australia's greatest living painter. He is one of an elite stable of creatives represented by Olsen. More to the point, he's the art dealer's dad.
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Review: Son of the Brush
Queensland Reviewers CollectiveIan Lipke
5 November 2020
Inspiration guided the person who coined the title of this memoir. Son of the Brush allows the writer to give the reading public information about the writer’s famous father – his virtues and vices, likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses while making available information about himself, one of the recognized business leaders in Sydney. The Brush is John Olsen, the son is gallery owner Tim.
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Chris Langlois | Littoral Zone
Artist ProfileEmma-Kate Wilson
November 2020
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Related exhibition
Chris Langlois Littoral Zone
VIDEO TOUR OF GILES ALEXANDER EXHIBITION
October 2020View video tour of the Giles Alexander 2020 exhibition
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Giles Alexander Beginning to See the Light
Portrait of the piss artist as a young man
The SpectatorRoss Fitzgerald
19 October 2020
Being the son of the revered John Olsen has often been intriguing, and sometimes difficult.
Olsen, 92, is arguably Australia’s greatest living artist, and is still painting. His son, Tim, 58, the author of this fine memoir, runs one of Australia’s leading art galleries in Woollahra, Sydney.
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