Elena Kats-Chernin AO (b. 1957), composer and pianist, was born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and trained at the Gnessin Musical College in Moscow before moving to Australia in 1975. On graduation from the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music in 1980 she gained a grant to study with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover. She spent thirteen years in Germany before returning to Sydney. Kats-Chernin has been commissioned to create works for orchestras internationally and was composer-in-residence with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (2011) and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (2017). Her music has inspired choreographers around the world and has featured in television, advertising and film.
Renowned for her richly-coloured, carnivalesque and variously perspectived works, Wendy Sharpe painted this portrait of her friend in 2017. The Witching Hour refers to a concerto for eight double basses composed by Kats-Chernin in 2016 for the Australian World Orchestra. The development of this work was recorded in a documentary about the Archibald Prize shown on Foxtel Arts that year.
Purchased with the assistance of funds provided by the Circle of Friends 2018
© Wendy Sharpe
The portrait is of Elena Kats-Chernin, the composer. It is titled The Witching Hour – Elena Kats-Chernin, referring to one of her compositions. The portrait was painted by Elena's friend Wendy Sharpe in 2017, with oil on canvas, and measures 150cm by 150cm. Elena is shown from head to knees, seated in the foreground centre of the portrait. She has been painted with loose, expressive brush strokes in fluorescent green, pink, and red, on a background of velvet black, deep red, green, and purple.
At the top left of the painting shine three bright blue, round shapes with blurred edges and pale centres, which look like stage lights. Beneath these are three large, curved, overlapping sheets of music, standing on a piano keyboard. The keyboard is also curved, the white and black keys sweeping out in an arc, and appearing to float in the darkness.
On the back right, in shadow, is the suggestion of another piano keyboard and more musical scores. In contrast, layered over these, are bold zig zagging slashes of neon pink, orange and yellow paint.
Elena's head is positioned in the very middle of the portrait, facing us and tilted slightly up. It is surrounded by a thick, wavy mane of black hair, highlighted with blue, pink, orange and green. Elena’s skin is also bathed in this fluorescent green glow. She has shapely eyebrows and large, dark eyes that gaze up to the right. Elena's nose is straight and her full scarlet lips are closed.
Around Elena’s neck is a strand of large, round, shiny red and green beads. Her shoulders, which are turned slightly towards her keyboard, are covered by a sleeveless bolero jacket. Its black fabric looks thick with a richly textured surface, patterned and dappled with colours. Elena wears a round necked, fire-engine red dress, accented in green where it creases at her waist.
Elena’s hands, also washed in shades of green and pink, rest lightly on her knees. Her right wrist is encircled by a bracelet of chunky links, and on the middle finger of that hand, is a solid, silvery ring. On her left wrist gleams a round, polished bangle, on her left ring finger are two fine bands, and in her loose fist, Elena holds a pencil pointing upwards.
Emanating from the space between her hands, a neon green swirl of paint, snakes like an elongated ‘s’ of smoke, up the painting, over the piano, sheets of music, and lights.
In the bottom right of the painting’s foreground, near Elena’s left elbow, is a grey-green, sharp angled, Moka stove top coffee pot. Criss-crossing streaks of yellow paint seem to leap between the coffee pot and Elena.
Audio description written by Lucie Shawcross and voiced by Carol Wellman Kelly
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