In July 1975 the National Gallery of Victoria staged the first solo exhibition of the work of Bill Henson, the nineteen-year-old photography student. Since that time, Henson has forged a remarkable career and is recognised today as one of a small number of Australian contemporary artists who has an international profile.
It is both exciting and appropriate that the NGV is now able to celebrate Henson's great achievement by hosting this major retrospective of his work, organised by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
The exhibition features a selection of more than 350 photographs from Henson's most important series and takes the viewer on a creative journey with the artist through thirty years. What becomes clearly evident in this remarkable installation is the full extent of Henson's powerful and distinctive vision. His use of the human figure is poignant and his photographs, with their cinematic use of light and dark, depth and ambiguity, are moody in both texture and subject matter. Henson's images are beautiful, disturbing, ambiguous and emotionally riveting.
Image sequence: Bill Henson, from Paris Opera Project 1991 (detail), from Untitled 1983/84 (detail), from Untitled sequence 1979 (detail), from Paris Opera Project 1991 (detail), from Untitled 2001/02 (detail), from Untitled 1980/82 (detail). © Bill Henson
