Exit International | Dr Death reveals human side on 'blind date' with artist Mirra Whale

July 7, 2016

Dr Death reveals human side on ‘blind date’ with artist Mirra Whale

Mirra Whale was not sure what to expect when she sat down to sketch the man known as Dr Death.

“I had no idea,” she says. “It was like a blind date.”

Artist Mirra Whale: “I’m not interested in painting someone because they’re famous. It’s what they stand up for.”

But she had seen the former doctor and euthanasia advocate Philip Nitschke perform his one-man show at this year’s Melbourne International Comedy Festival the previous day.

Whale says she was drawn to Nitschke’s bold advocacy for euthanasia, which she calls courageous and an inspiration.

For five hours, Whale sketched Nitschke in preparation for a portrait for this year’s Archibald Prize as they sat “ranting” about topics as diverse as living in squats, medicine, anarchy, human rights and Nauru.

Whale was struck by his compassionate rather than cavalier approach to death.

“He’s quite an animated man,” she says. “He was quite hard to draw actually … but so generous with his time and knowledge and really he’s just so confident in what he’s doing and what he believes.”

Nitschke says everyone meets him with preconceived notions, but “for a blind date it went off remarkably well”.

As Nitschke’s wife Fiona “discreetly left” to fetch coffee, he says artist and sitter talked about euthanasia and his career.

“I thoroughly enjoyed the date, and I felt there was a personal connection so that should be helpful in her task of moving some of this onto the canvas,” he says.

“It’s not daunting talking with someone who understands and agrees and so you don’t find yourself having to go back, argue every point.”

A portrait of Nitschke was painted by Amanda King for the 1998 Archibald Prize and acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in 2009.

Nitschke hopes Whale’s portrait shows another side of him.

“I hope it reveals that there’s more to me than a one-dimensional loud and angry activist that I’m often publicly portrayed as,” he says.

There are a dozen charcoal and pencil drawings of Nitschke dotted around Whale’s studio in Marrickville in a former screen-printing factory tucked between weed-strewn train tracks, wholesale butchers and a brothel. Another wall of the studio is covered with still-life paintings of meat that Whale will exhibit in June at Brisbane’s Mitchell Fine Art.

A two-time Archibald finalist, Whale was also selected for the Portia Geach Memorial Art Award in 2012, 2013 and 2014, and the 2013 Salon des Refusés.

Whale usually paints a portrait during multiple sittings but her approach this time is different because Nitschke lives in Switzerland where he heads euthanasia advocacy group Exit International.

“I’ll be using the sketches and also relying on a couple of photos and the continued dialogue I’ll have with him,” she says.

Whale set herself a month to paint a life-size portrait of Nitschke’s head and torso “and possibly his hands. He’s quite a gestural person”.

She is working on five portraits of Nitschke, one of which she will enter in the Archibald Prize.

She says the portraits are “quite monochromatic”. “There will be a lot of play between light and dark and the analogies you can draw from that.”

But she adds: “I don’t want it to be all doom and gloom. When it’s connected with death, you don’t just want to paint a black painting. And I think what he offers is hope for a lot of people so I do want it to be a positive painting.”

Nitschke’s hooded eyes and bald head suggest a stern countenance, but Whale describes Dr Death as a “quite comical” figure who wore a pink shirt and sparkly sneakers to their meeting.

“He steps outside the zone you’re meant to and I think he’s ruffled a lot of feathers purely trying to do what he believes is best,” she says.

It is a trait he shares with the people Whale has previously painted for the Archibald Prize – former Labor deputy leader Tom Uren and Sydney Morning Herald columnist Elizabeth Farrelly.

“They’re all good people,” she says. “They all put themselves, and Philip definitely, in a scapegoat position. Yet they are all willing to stand up and fight for what they believe in, which I think is incredibly admirable.”

She adds: “I’m not interested in painting someone because they’re famous. It’s what they stand up for.”

The Archibald Prize finalists will be revealed on July 7 and the winner announced on July 15.

Editor’s Note

Congratulations to Mirra Whale for having her portrait of Philip Nitschke selected as one of the 50 Finalists Archibald Prize from over 900 entries in the 2016 Archibald Prize.