Penelope Seidler AM (b. 1938), architect and arts patron, was one of the three children of barrister and state parliamentarian Clive Evatt QC and his wife Marjorie. She studied philosophy, history and anthropology at the University of Sydney before switching to architecture, and met Vienna-born architect Harry Seidler in 1957. 'There was something about his power of expression and determination that I thought: this is what I want,' she has recollected. They married in December 1958. Director of Harry Seidler & Associates since 1966, she has held positions on the councils of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the National Gallery of Australia, the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Venice Biennale. She has endowed architecture professorships and scholarships at the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney; and in 2015 she donated $750,000 towards the establishment of Sydney University's Chau Chak Wing Museum.
Anne Zahalka's portrait depicts Penelope in the house she designed with her husband, where she has lived since it was built in 1967. Zahalka's work often alludes to art historical traditions – in this case, the device of the 'portrait-within-a-portrait' to evoke the memory and presence of someone who has passed away. In the background is a portrait of the Seidlers by Petrina Hicks, taken the year before Harry's death in 2006.
Purchased 2021
© Anne Zahalka/Copyright Agency, 2024
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Photographed 60 years apart, these portraits trace the lives and love story of Penelope Seidler AM and Harry Seidler OBE.
Naomi Cass, Director of the Centre of Contemporary Photography, in conversation with Anne Zahalka.
