Richard Tognetti AO (b. 1965), violinist, conductor and composer, trained with William Primrose in Wollongong and Alice Waten in Sydney before undertaking further studies with Igor Ozim in Switzerland. Awarded the Tschumi Prize for the outstanding graduate soloist, in 1989 he returned to Australia to lead the Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) and was appointed the Orchestra’s Artistic Director and Lead Violin later that year. As director or soloist, Tognetti has appeared with many of the world’s leading orchestras, and in 2016 was the first artist-in-residence at the Barbican Centre’s Milton Court Concert Hall. He also performed the Australian premieres of Ligeti’s Violin Concerto and Lutosławski’s Partita, and his recordings of Bach’s solo violin works gained him three consecutive ARIA awards. Tognetti created the Huntington Festival in Mudgee, New South Wales and was Artistic Director of the Festival Maribor in Slovenia from 2008 to 2015. He has also collaborated with performers, film-makers and artists including Barry Humphries, Michael Leunig, Jennifer Peedom and Bill Henson, and co-composed scores for feature films, notably Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World (for which he coached Russell Crowe for his on screen violin playing). He was declared a National Living Treasure in 1999 and holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Sydney, Wollongong and Western Australia. Tognetti has otherwise been commended for the development and promotion of educational programs, support for emerging artists and contributions to charitable organisations.
Louise Hearman
‘How do you condense a brilliant frenetic being, who unfolds in time, into a single image that exists in the present? Some have theorised that objects in space only appear as they do when being observed, and when they are not being observed they are simply energy. Richard is a field of energy and I have tried to nail down particles that look like they belong to him.’
Louise Hearman (b. 1963), graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts in 1984 and has built her visual arts career over the decades since. Inspired by an imaginary world, and sometimes described as ‘luminist’, her paintings often include incorporeal, surrealistic motifs in empty landscapes and express a sense of transience. She has exhibited throughout Australia and abroad, including the Frankfurt Contemporary Art Fair in 1993, Contempora 5 in 1999, Uncommon World: Aspects of Contemporary Australian Art in 2000 and Big Spooks in 2005. A major survey of her works from 1990-2016 was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in 2016. She has won numerous awards and prizes, including the 2014 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize for a portrait of her long-term partner, artist Bill Henson, and the 2016 Archibald Prize for a portrait of Barry Humphries. Hearman’s works are held in public and private collections throughout Australia.
Commissioned with funds provided by Peter Weiss AO 2018
