Aussie Icon: Portrait of Jenny Kee

Artist Adrienne Doig employs self portraiture to explore her everyday life and examine political, social and environmental issues. She has created self portraits in various forms: from experimental video works to tea towels, needlepoint tapestries, soft sculptures and patchwork quilts. She first started experimenting with wooden nesting dolls when she was an art student in Sydney in the 1980s, but put her own spin on the format by making each doll in the set unique. Having made a number of self portraits this way, Doig realised that multiple sets of nesting dolls would be the perfect way of capturing Australian fashion icon Jenny Kee AO (b. 1947) and her instantly recognisable, brightly-coloured designs. Doig initially thought she’d make one set of 10 Jenny Kee dolls. But seeing the multitude of garments Kee produced during their first meeting, Doig was ‘dazzled’ and ended up creating three different sets. ‘I was able to really get obsessive about the details,’ Doig says. The set chosen for acquisition by the National Portrait Gallery shows some of Kee’s most iconic knitwear designs, including the ‘Blinky’ jumper made famous by Princess Diana during her 1982 royal visit

Purchased 2022
© Adrienne Doig/Copyright Agency, 2024