Image: Heide Museum of Modern Art, BULLEEN
Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen will open 'Ken Whisson and John Foubister: Going Back In' on 22 August 2026, bringing together works by the Australian modernist Ken Whisson and the South Australian artist John Foubister in an exhibition built around a friendship that began with a chance meeting in 1984. The show runs until 22 November 2026 across the Kerry Gardner & Andrew Myer Project Gallery and the Albert and Barbara Tucker Gallery.
According to Heide’s exhibition material, that 1984 encounter between Whisson, who was Italian-based, and Foubister led to a lifelong friendship. Their subsequent exchanges were conducted by post and over the telephone, and developed over decades marked by changing personal circumstances and what the museum describes as radically different lives. The exhibition takes that correspondence and artistic exchange as its central frame, presenting the relationship as both social and creative rather than purely biographical.
Heide says the show offers a meditation on exchange, artistic influence and camaraderie. The museum’s framing places the emphasis on the dialogue between the two artists’ practices and on the enduring character of their connection. Whisson is identified by Heide as a modernist, while Foubister is described in the museum’s newsletter as a regional South Australian artist. The exhibition is being curated by Anna Zagala as a guest curator.
The installation includes works by both artists, including John Foubister’s 'Birds and Flowers Near a Bush Giving a Peace Sign' from 2019–22. Heide’s newsletter also reproduces images of correspondence between Foubister and Whisson dated 20 September 1984, alongside Whisson’s 'Flag for David Ireland No. 2' from 1981, indicating that the exhibition draws on artworks and archival material to illuminate the relationship. The museum does not provide a fuller checklist in the source material reviewed.
'Going Back In' arrives amid a busy August program at Heide, but the exhibition stands apart as a focused two-artist presentation. The museum’s website places it in two galleries and notes that admission is included with museum entry. Heide’s public program for the opening includes an art talk on Saturday 22 August at 11am with guest curator Anna Zagala and John Foubister, scheduled in the Albert and Barbara Tucker Gallery.
That talk is set to accompany the exhibition’s opening and, according to Heide, will reflect on artistic influence and how memory can serve as a generative force. The exhibition itself opens on 22 August and remains on view through 22 November 2026.
