WOLINSKI, JOSEPH (1872-1955)

**ON HOLD - EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST**
 
"Woolloomooloo From Potts Point" (1912)
oil on canvas
56 x 66cm
signed lower right
*private collection, New York
*David Smernoff Galleries, Connecticut, United States of America
*private collection, New South Wales
 
Wolinski was a prolific, infamous Jewish-Australian Painter. He studied in Sydney at the Julian Ashton School & travelled to Europe, becoming Painting Master at Saville House School in Mansfield. A portraitist & landscape painter, he exhibited at the Royal Academy & in Paris, returning to Australia in 1911. In 1913 he again visited England & joined the Royal Academy Artist's Corps during WWI. An accomplished & renowned opera singer, Wolinski divided his time between singing & painting. As his reputation as a painter grew in Europe, he started to devote himself full time to painting. In 1916, he moved to the United States & he set up a studio in New Rochelle, exhibiting at the National Academy of Design in NYC. He returned to Australia in 1918. In the 1930s he opened his own Art School, the Academy Wolinski. A prolific portraitist, Wolinski holds the record for the most portraits hung in the Archibald Prize. However, unfortunately he was never shortlisted to win. Wolinski's last ten years of life were bitterly disappointing for him. The art establishment shunned him following the celebrated court case against the Dobell Archibald Prize painting of Joshua Smith. It was suggested he had been made the fall guy by the Royal Art Society. As a leading traditional portraitist they'd encouraged him & Mary Edwards to take civil action against the Archibald Trustees over the awarding of the prize to the Dobell painting, which they described as a caricature. When he lost, the appreciation of his own work altered within the community. The resulting publicity from the case escalated Dobell to celebrity status & relegated Wolinski & Edwards to the wilderness. He died in obscurity in 1955. Despite this, his works are represented in the AGNSW & Great Synagogue.
 
This fascinating vista painted just prior to him moving to Europe, includes structures such as the old Woolloomooloo fish market & the back of the original facade of the National Art Gallery of NSW (AGNSW).