Vale Lindsay Barrett

The Power Institute regretfully notes the passing of Dr Lindsay Barrett, one of our most successful authors. His book The Prime Minister’s Postcard - Blue Poles and Cultural Politics in the Whitlam Era has been continuously in print since its publication in 2001. It is a pioneering Australian example of a social history approach to an individual artwork, surely the most famous in this country. Lindsay’s book has been used widely in teaching and in scholarship on Jackson Pollock’s painting as well as in history courses.

Lindsay Barrett taught for many years at UTS and then UWS and published a range of cultural criticism (including the 2023 “Class Acts: TV Larrikins and the Advent of the Ocker, 1957–1984”, co-authored with Peter Kirkpatrick) as well the novel North. He passed away after two decades of coping with a rare heart condition. He is survived by his partner Associate Professor Fiona Allon of Gender and Cultural Studies at Sydney, and their son Arthur. 

For a detailed obituary see Anthony Uhlmann’s “Author was a ‘star turn’, whose reputation preceded him”, in the Sydney Morning Herald, 10 Nov 2023.

Professor Roger Benjamin, Art History Research Coordinator and former Director of the Power Institute.