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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders both past and present.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are warned that this website contains images of deceased persons.

A Dance to the Music of Time (Self portrait), 2022

Wendy Sharpe

Darling Portrait Prize 2022 Finalist

A Dance to the Music of Time (Self portrait), 2022

This painting is about time and its inevitability. It features a version of A Dance to the Music of Time by Nicolas Poussin. This is partly due to my age, and partly the strange pandemic world we are currently in. I include symbols of ephemerality and impermanence – bubbles, flowers, smoke from a snuffed candle, and references to time – a watch, hourglass, sun and moon. There is a connection with the Japanese phrase mono no aware, often translated as 'the sadness of time passing', an awareness of the transience of things. Nothing is forever.

Darling Portrait Prize 2022
(More information, View all 39 paintings)

Other DPP paintings from Wendy Sharpe
(More information)

Megan Wilding as Blackie Blackie Brown: Traditional Owner of Death, 2019 Wendy Sharpe
DPP 2020 Finalist

Related information

2020, 2021 Jaq Grantford
2020, 2021 Jaq Grantford
2020, 2021 Jaq Grantford
2020, 2021 Jaq Grantford

Darling Portrait Prize 2022

Previous exhibition, 2022

The Darling Portrait Prize is a biennial national prize for Australian portrait painting honouring the legacy of Mr L Gordon Darling AC CMG (1921-2015). The winner receives a cash prize of $75,000.
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The National Portrait Gallery acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and to Elders past and present. We respectfully advise that this site includes works by, images of, names of, voices of and references to deceased people.

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