George Baldessin (1939–1978)
- When 9 Oct - 9 Nov 1991
This exhibition consists of 34 drawings from 1964 to 1978 amplified by a limited number of sculptural works that relate specifically to the drawings and one silkscreen print with drawing added. The majority of the drawings were executed whilst George Baldessin was in Paris between late 1975 and early 1977. Their subject mater consists of images of Mary Magdalene transformed through Baldessin's vision of prostitutes in the rue St. Denis in Paris. There are also in this exhibition a number of drawings of Emblems whose subject is fragments of the female form and of various objects such as mirrors, curtains, lights, cones and visual devices, as well as pears and letters of the alphabet. In many of his drawings of women it is Baldessin's own face that emerges from the mask adding to the creation in his work of an androgynous presence, the extremes of which transmute one gender into another.
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Curated by Nick Waterlow
Organised by Ivan Dougherty Gallery and Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne



Images: Installation view, 'George Baldessin (1939–1978): drawings and selected sculpture', Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney 1991.