Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires

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Date and timeSaturday 24 June, 6-7.30 pm
CostGeneral $35, Friends of DHG $25, Students $15
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Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires: a contemporary ballet about the life and art of Australian painter William Dobell.

A ballet by Skip Willcox, Belle Beasley, James Drinkwater, and Joseph Franklin

(performance excerpt for The Drill Hall)

The evening will commence with drinks, a performance by musicians, followed by the 30 minute excerpt from the ballet.

Visual Artist: James Drinkwater
Choreographers: Skip Willcox, Belle Beasley
Music: Joseph Franklin
Dancers: Alexander Abbot, Nicholas Jachno, Cassidy McDermott-Smith, Mitchell Christie
Musicians: Ollie McGill, Sam Gill, Chloe Kim

Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires was first commissioned by Lake Macquarie Multi-Arts Pavillion (mima) in 2022. Supported by the RISE Fund from the Australian Government.

William Dobell OBE was born in working-class Newcastle in 1899. After winning the Archibald Prize in 1944 with his portrait of friend and fellow war artist Joshua Smith, he rose to the heights of art-world fame – only to suffer at the hands of conservatism and be tried in court for crimes of aesthetic perversion. For following his heart and pushing boundaries with his work, he was made to pay the price – unbridled public persecution and the loss of a close friend. Though Dobell continued to paint and produce acclaimed artworks, the remainder of his life was plagued by criticism and anxiety. He sought solace in his family home in Wangi Wangi, where he painted his tumultuous Wynne prize-winning landscape Storm approaching Wangi (1948). Dobell died alone in Wangi Wangi in 1970, an acclaimed Australian artist, whose personal life had been devastated for daring to challenge the conventions of the day.

William Dobell told the Court that he had shared a tent with Smith in the CCC for two years. They were camouflage laborers. He. admitted that he had slightly exaggerated certain physical characteristics of the subject of the painting but not to the extent others said. He thought that he had succeeded in producing a work of art.
-Barrier Daily Truth, Broken Hill, 1944.

I still follow my immediate impulses, and paint just how I like, when I like, and not to order. Anything else but that, and I would be lost.
– William Dobell, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, 1949.

He is primarily interested in human beings.
– Hal Missingham 1964
Director of Art Gallery NSW ( 1945 – 1971)

Related Events

Exhibition Jun 24-Aug 20 James Drinkwater: At mid-career

Image Gallery

Performance of Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires at the Drill Hall Gallery

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Image: Performance of Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires. Photo: Ben Adams

The Drill Hall Gallery acknowledges the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional custodians of the Canberra region, and recognises their continuous connection to culture, community and Country.

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