Robert Besanko
(Australia 1951– )
- Title
- Untitled
- Other titles:
- Nanette, back of woman, shadows and moles [descriptive title]
- Year
- 1976
printed 1985 - Media category
- Photograph
- Materials used
- gelatin silver photograph on Kodalith paper
- Dimensions
-
33.1 x 48.5cm image; 40.4 x 50.4cm sheet
- Signature & date
- Signed and dated l.l. sheet, ink and u.l. verso, pencil "Robert Besanko 1976". Dated u.r verso, pencil "..1985"
- Credit
- Purchased 1988
- Accession number
- 499.1988
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Robert Besanko's essential isolation as an artist has led to the evolution of a personal and poetic vision. One can sense in his fascination with simplified forms and composition a distinct shift away from realism towards something other-worldly - an effect accentuated by the subtle textural quality of the now obsolete Kodalith paper he used in the printing process.
Besanko's highly-aestheticised images of women are typical of his work from the 1970-80s. While they are sensual and sensitive studies, a strange and intentional spatial ambiguity implicates the viewer within the photographic act. The artist has suggested in an interview that:
'you are aware of what the image can become when you look at the subject. The signature is the lyrical line - the otherness - and the intimacy. I strive for the essence… but more as well. The eroticism is the humanity, if you do not deny it.' (The Age, 2 August 1988)
- Bibliography (1)
-
Judy Annear (Australia) (Author), What is this thing called photography?, Sydney, 1999. no catalogue numbers
- Exhibition history (2)
-
What is this thing called photography?, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 05 Jun 1999–29 Jul 1999.
Magical realism, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 18 Feb 2006–02 Apr 2006.
