Bill Henson

FESTIVAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Bill Henson presents recent photographs by Bill Henson, selected by the artist, and encompassing themes including portraits, nudes, lush museum interiors and transcendent landscapes.

The images in this exhibition are drawn from a body of works created between 2008 and 2011 and continue Henson’s sensitive, sophisticated study of the human condition, which he has realised over his forty year career.

Each of the works included has a palpable sense of the cinematic and together they form a powerful and enigmatic imaginative statement. Like much of his work, there is little that is explicit, and rather the works propose open-ended narratives and capture a transitory sensation.

A powerful sense of mystery and ambiguity can be found within the images, heightened by the velvet-like blackness of the shadows and the striking use of chiaroscuro to selectively obscure and reveal the form of the nudes, sculptures and the landscape itself.

The exhibition is presented within the Level 2, 19th – 20th C Art & Design Galleries at NGV International. In this unexpected location Henson’s photographs can be seen in proximity to some of the masterpieces of the NGV Collection.

Donated through the Australian Governments Cultural Gifts Program by William Donald Bowness, 2016