The light and shade behind John Olsen’s genius
The director of the National Art School got to know the legendary artist on a personal level, gaining insight into his love of Spanish painting, his dog … and rugby league.
The first time John Olsen applied for Sydney’s National Art School, he failed the entry test. That was in 1945 as a teenager.
In 2021, aged 93, he told this story with great relish to the opening night audience at what was to be his last major exhibition, John Olsen: Goya’s Dog. It was in the NAS Gallery at the National Art School, where he did eventually get in to study in the early 1950s, and later taught after returning from several years in Spain in the early 1960s.
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