Last night at ART+ Gallery was one of those rare Sydney evenings that doesn’t quite leave you. An intimate dinner gathered a small circle of guests to celebrate the life, work and true romance of the late Douglas Kirkland, hosted in honour of his lifelong muse and forever partner, Françoise Kirkland, for the launch of their new book, ROMANCE.

The walls did a lot of the talking. Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot, Coco Chanel,  a curated, perfectly chosen hang of some of the most iconic images you know, pulled from an archive that helped define how glamour has been photographed for more than half a century. Sitting under them with a glass of wine, it was genuinely wild to take in. These weren’t reproductions in a magazine or a scroll on a phone. They were the pictures, in the room, at close range.

Seated beside one of Douglas’s longtime friends, and later beside Françoise herself, the stories came in the best possible way unhurried, warm, and full of the kind of detail you only get from people who were actually there. Behind-the-scenes moments with Marilyn. Afternoons with Coco. Yachts, private planes, film sets, fashion houses. A life of depth and romance and stunning art, told over dinner as if we were all old friends catching up on mutual acquaintances who just happened to be some of the most photographed women of the twentieth century.

Françoise spoke about Douglas’s particular gift  that he had a knack of making everyone feel beautiful, men and women alike. You could feel it in the room, even in his absence. The pictures weren’t just records of fame; they were records of someone who genuinely liked the people in front of his lens, and made them feel it. The life he and Françoise built together sounded, honestly, like something out of one of his own frames.

That is what makes ROMANCE more than a publishing moment, and what makes this Sydney run a must-see. The book edited by Françoise Kirkland and Sarah Menahem, with an introduction by Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, is framed around love, desire, intimacy and connection, and it reads exactly the way the evening felt: tender, glamorous, unhurried, and completely alive.

Françoise is in town for the public launch tonight at ART+ Gallery, and her energy is wonderful, open, passionate, deeply protective of Douglas’s work without ever making it feel like a museum piece. This is a rare chance to see the photographs up close, with the romance of his life in the room to introduce them. In a city that gets its share of cultural nights, this one is different. Go.

ROMANCE: Book Launch & Exhibition ART+ Gallery, Sydney Exhibition dates: 22 April – 6 May 2026 Public launch with Françoise Kirkland: Tuesday 22 April, 6:30pm For current gallery viewing hours, visit artplusgallery.co