Robert Besanko
(Australia 1951– )
Untitled (seated woman in skirt)
- 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)
- Year
- 1976
- Media
- Photograph
- Medium
- gelatin silver photograph on Kodalith paper
- Dimensions
- 21.3 x 31.8cm image; 28.1 x 35.6cm sheet
- Signature & date
- Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1979
- Accession number
- 328.1979
