Larry Sitsky AO (b. 1934) was a founding member of the Canberra School of Music, Australian National University, where he has held the positions of Head of Composition studies, Head of Academic Studies and Head of Keyboard Studies. Sitsky’s compositions include opera, theatre, orchestral music, chamber music, solo and vocal music, and his works have been commissioned by many leading Australian and international bodies. His writings on the music of Busoni and Rubinstein, music of the twentieth-century avant-garde, the repressed Russian avant-garde and twentieth century Australian piano music have now become standard texts. His recording projects have focused on contemporary Australian composers, especially Roy Agnew. Amongst his publications is a collection of teaching pieces, Century, and many other works have been published by the New York-based Seesaw Music Corporation. Sitsky: Conversations with the Composer was published by the National Library of Australia in 2004. The Australian National University awarded Sitsky its first Higher Doctorate in Fine Arts in 1997.
This portrait of Sitsky by self-taught painter Sister Mary Brady OP won the Portia Geach Prize for 1971.
Gift of Eva Cox 2003. Donated through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program.
© Kim Spooner
The portrait is titled Social currency (Eva Cox). It was painted by Kim Spooner in 1999, with encaustic on canvas. The portrait measures 1.8 metres tall by 1.6 metres wide and is unframed.
Eva is painted realistically. The colours are blended, smudging together, the shading making Eva appear rounded and three dimensional. The encaustic media creates a smooth waxy effect.
Eva’s smiling face takes up most of the canvas. She is cropped at her shoulders on either side and just below her shoulders at the bottom edge. Only a small amount of dark deep blue and rust-brown background is visible behind her.
Eva’s head is on a slight angle turned towards the right, her eyes looking towards the viewer. Her hair is parted at the side and tied back, with a small section at the front curving around her forehead then down, following the shape of and finishing at her cheekbone. The rest of her hair is longer, the gentle waves flowing over the tops of her ears and drawn back loosely. Her hair is painted in golds and deeper bronzes, merging together and highlighted, where touched by the light, in silvery white.
Eva’s skin is a similar palette of silvery white, gold and grey-blues combining delicately in a silky glowing surface.
Eva has a smooth forehead interrupted by a fine vertical line between her eyebrows. Her eyebrows are dark, slender and partially covered by the oval frames of her glasses. From behind the lenses and beneath heavy lids, Eva’s eyes look directly towards us. Her irises are a golden amber with flecks of light making them sparkle. Under her eyes, soft folds of skin sit in half-moons.
Eva has a long, narrow nose with a turned-down tip. The bridge of her glasses rests up high on her nose while the bottom edge of their frames seems to press heavily on her cheeks, forming an indent where they rest on the soft skin.
Eva’s cheeks are rounded and firm at the top. Beneath, are small lines and dimples created by her broad grin. A deep crease runs beneath each cheek from the outer edges of her nose to the corners of her mouth.
Eva’s mouth is smiling in a wide closed smile. Her lips are shapely, the top thinner than her full bottom lip. Her lips are glossy and a warm coppery-brown.
Eva’s round chin is echoed by a second fold of skin framed by the upturned collar of her jacket. The jacket looks soft, made from thick plaid fabric, warm blue with a grid of black-edged pink-red stripes. The edge of the collar sits up and close to Eva’s jaw, the top buttons undone, creating a small ‘v’ at her neck. She wears a dark grey roll-necked top beneath.
Audio description written and read by Lucinda Shawcross
Eva Cox AO (1 portrait)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Well behaved women seldom make history, as the saying goes, and the National Portrait Gallery, consequently, is full of awesome Australian women who refused to conform to narrow ideas about their place and their worth.
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