One of the most well-known portraits in Australia, Ben Quilty’s Archibald award-winning portrait of Margaret Olley, has today been announced as the newest acquisition for the Tweed Regional Gallery in Murwillumbah, NSW.

The Gallery, which includes the much-loved Margaret Olley Art Centre, was able to acquire the significant portrait through a major public Acquisition Appeal, spearheaded by the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation, and with the generosity of many donors.

Margaret Olley 2011 by artist Ben Quilty (b.1973), will be the centrepiece of Painting Life: Margaret Olley and Works from the Collection on display at the Margaret Olley Art Centre from 15 June until 31 August 2025.

Included in this exhibition, and on public display for the first time, are 11 still life paintings by Quilty paying homage to his friend and mentor. The colour-rich works depict flora from the artist’s garden arranged in cut-glass vases and a ceramic vessel that were gifts from Olley.

Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd President, Warren Polglase OAM, said the Gallery was a natural home for this portrait but that its acquisition required support from many quarters.

“We are delighted by the incredible generosity received for this appeal. Art lovers across the country have shown their support and now we can bring this significant portrait home to the Margaret Olley Art Centre,” Mr Polgase said.

Ingrid Hedgcock, Director of Tweed Gallery, agrees that this is a piece that the Gallery had long wanted in its collection.

“The re-creation of Margaret Olley’s studio at the Art Centre is the ultimate portrait of one of Australia’s finest painters and now we’ll have the most celebrated literal portrait of the artist to display beside it,” she said.

With his 2011 Archibald Prize win, Quilty quickly gained national prominence, marking a turning point in the artist’s career. The rich, earthy palette with Quilty’s distinctive sweeping gestures of paint used to create Margaret Olley 2011 combine to produce a powerful, confident matriarch – a preeminent figure in the story of Australian art.

“The iconic portrait acts as a reminder of Olley’s huge generosity and is even more poignant given its timing – painted just months before her passing,” Ms Hedgcock said.

“Olley was a generous philanthropist. In the spirit of her great capacity to support public galleries and fellow artists this acquisition has been made possible by the incredible support of Principal Donors Tim Fairfax AC and Gina Fairfax AC; and from donations from the Margaret Olley Art Trust, the Estate of Kenneth Fizzell and Eugene McGrath through the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd., an anonymous donor, Friends of Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Inc., Philip Bacon AO, the Nelson Meers Foundation, Liz and Graeme Wikman, Michael Hudson and a range of other supporters of the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Acquisition Appeal, 2025 .”

Ben Quilty’s has often described his deep respect and admiration for Olley and in 2011 he outlined his vision for the portrait:

“You just need to walk into her home, which is also her studio, to see that you couldn’t use anything but striking colour. It’s full of translucent works-in-progress, beautiful drawings, sculptures and flowers, so I wanted the portrait to reflect that.”

While on display at the Tweed Regional Gallery, the portrait and new still life paintings will be accompanied by 5 chalk and plaster-cast sculptures created by Quilty in 2019. That year, the artist’s sketchbook from the sitting for Margaret Olley 2011 became the source for a large-scale installation at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. The 2019 installation comprised scaled-up portraits of Olley rendered in coloured chalk. The 5 chalk sculptures on display in Painting Life featured in the installation were cast from 2 objects given to Quilty by Olley.

Painting Life: Margaret Olley and Works from the Collection will also feature important still life paintings by Margaret Olley from the collection, as well as works by artists who, over the years, have drawn inspiration from Olley and her rich assortment of objects featured in her home studio re-creation on permanent display at the Margaret Olley Art Centre.

The exhibition also offers still life paintings by Olley on loan from private collections as well as the painting Remembering Margaret 2017–22 by Nicholas Harding, which is currently on loan from The Nicholas Harding Estate.

The contemporary responses in Painting Life greatly enrich the ongoing narrative around Olley – Australia’s most celebrated painter of still life and interiors.

The Gallery would like to acknowledge the ongoing support of the Tweed Regional Gallery Foundation Ltd., the Friends of Tweed Regional Gallery and Margaret Olley Art Centre Inc., the Margaret Olley Art Trust, very generous private donors and Gallery visitors, in the development of the Gallery’s collection.

Painting Life: Margaret Olley and Works from the Collection is on display at the Margaret Olley Art Centre until 31 August 2025. Margaret Olley 2011 by Ben Quilty will also feature in a forthcoming portraiture exhibition at the Tweed Regional Gallery (7 November 2025 – 6 December 2026). For further details, please visit the Gallery’s website.