A Yarraville artist exploring the naked truth at the heart of our lives has been selected as one of the finalists for the Benalla Nude Art Prize.
Godwin Bradbeer’s Woman Ascending #3 was one of 31 artworks shortlisted for Benalla Art Gallery’s inaugural $50,000 prize for a nude work.
Bradbeer says nudes have long been at the centre of his artistic output, despite falling out of favour during the 20th century in the face of modernism. “The concept of the nude was sidelined as a classical anachronism, the domain of the academies,” he said.
Although the advent of digital photography has coincided with a renaissance in figurative painting and drawing, Bradbeer continues to work freehand rather than from images.
Inspired by the sculptures of early Greek civilisation, he works with the human figure almost exclusively, primarily with the male, although his shortlisted artwork is a larger-than-life female figure based on his partner.
Bradbeer says his work plays with ambiguity around the vulnerability of the woman being portrayed and her ability to “rise above the circumstances”.
He is similarly interested in the ambiguous relationship between truth and beauty and the “aesthetics of damage” of a subject betraying its lived history. “It’s very hard to do something that has a certain reverence but also looks true.”
Shortlisted works are on display until Sunday. Details: www.benallaartgallery.com
