The Great Expectations of the artist's son
Quadrant MagazineMatthew White
30 December 2020
This haptic book, for it is large and weighs in the hand, carries an immense personal burden. A whole life is laid bare: a history of peripatetic childhood, neglect, alcoholism, abandonment, false starts, humiliations, failed marriages, addiction and neglect in turn, dependency, self-deception, relapse, renunciation. All the ingredients for the modern celebrity confessional.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
Tim Olsen: Son of the Brush
a rich lifeChloe Mandryk
24 December 2021
‘Quixotic’ is a go-to and apt term used by author Tim Olsen in ‘Son of the Brush’, a memoir amidst one Australia’s most eminent bohemian families. He muses on the relatable milestones of his life from the politics of the schoolyard, the gamut love runs, sobriety, crafting a career and parenting. The relentless pursuit of an ideal is unique to an individual let alone a clan so the spark in this title is surely the unique accounts of how Tim, John Olsen, Louise Olsen and Valerie Strong have strived for a rich life.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
Tim Olsen: Son of the Brush
Art AlmanacAlice Dingle
21 December 2020
The Olsen name has long been regarded as that of Australian art royalty, with revered artist John Olsen arguably the sovereign. ‘Son of the Brush’ is a frank memoir shedding light on the personal and professional life of the artist’s only son, Tim Olsen. A detailed recount of events traversing the art dealer and gallerist’s early childhood to present day, Olsen’s story is part celebration, part confessional; unfurling the art scene (both nationally and internationally, past and present) and owning his identity and place within it, and within his family.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
Swashbuckler and Son
Australian Book ReviewIan Britain
December 2020
Extract: A voyage round my father’, to quote the title of John Mortimer’s autobiographical play of 1963, has been a popular form of personal memoir in Britain from Edmund Gosse’s Father and Son (1907) to Michael Parkinson’s just-published Like Father, Like Son. The same form produced some of the best Australian writing in the twentieth century, with two assured classics in the case of Germaine Greer’s Daddy, We Hardly Knew You (1989) and Raimond Gaita’s Romulus, My Father (1998). The tradition has continued into the present century with – to list some of the choicest plums – Richard Freadman’s Shadow of Doubt: My father and myself (2003), Sheila Fitzpatrick’s My Father’s Daughter (2010), Jim Davidson’s A Führer for a Father (2017), and Christopher Raja’s Into the Suburbs: A migrant’s story (2020). Mothers in such sagas are far from absent, and they can emerge, though not always, as the more obviously loveable or loving figures. As signalled by most of those titles, however, mothers loom less large over the unfolding narrative. Fathers may not always know or act best, but, partly because of their often tougher, commanding mien, they become irresistibly the centre of attention.
_view online (external link)
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
_continue reading_view online (external link)
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.
_Click here to download PDF
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.
_view online (external link)
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.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
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
_continue reading_view online (external link)
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.
_view online (external link)
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.
_view online (external link)Related exhibition
Sophie Cape Flash Point
Sophie Cape video tour
November - December 2020Video tour of Sophie Cape's 2020 exhibition at OLSEN Gallery, Woollahra
_view online (external link)Related exhibition
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.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
Eva Nolan Exhibition Video
November 2020Video tour of Eva Nolan exhibition at OLSEN Annexe, Woollahra in November 2020
_view online (external link)Related exhibition
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.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
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.
_continue reading_view online (external link)
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.
_view online (external link)