BALDESSIN
- George Baldessin

‘What am I trying to express? – I think human weakness through the vulnerable figure without extracting its dignity no matter how uncertain… this is why distortion and the element of drama [are] ever present’ – George Baldessin, 1965

This highly anticipated exhibition features a collection of George Baldessin’s iconic prints, as well as a significant selection of works that have never been exhibited before, including drawings, paintings and sculpture. 

Baldessin’s singular artistic vision is revealed here through various mediums, exploring the female form, the landscape and his personal set of emblems. 

George Baldessin’s powerful mark-making and mastery of technique was coupled with an acute sensitivity to, and observation of, the human condition, finding poetry in the inherent tension of life. Baldessin’s figures are animated by distortion and fragmentation, but also by the push and pull evident between the figures and their environment. 

The work of George Baldessin is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Australia, most major private and public collections in Australia, and many overseas. A major joint exhibition featuring Baldessin’s works alongside Brett Whiteley’s was featured at the National Gallery of Victoria in 2018. In 2009 Australian Galleries published George Baldessin: Paradox and Persuasion, a significant monograph on the artist’s work.

‘George Baldessin is one of the giants of post-war 20th century Australian art who only today is receiving his due recognition.’ – Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM, 2019

Tess Edwards Baldessin will speak at this exhibition
1.30pm Saturday 5 November 2022