52 Portraits
2013
Medium
synthetic polymer paint, metallic paint and screenprint on silver metallic foil on canvas
Measurements
(a) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(b) 70.3 × 55.1 cm
(c) 70.4 × 55.2 cm
(d) 70.0 × 55.3 cm
(e) 40.3 × 55.1 cm
(f) 70.4 × 55.2 cm
(g) 70.5 × 55.2 cm
(h) 70.5 × 55.2 cm
(i) 70.2 × 55.1 cm
(j) 70.2 × 55.2 cm
(k) 70.4 × 55.0 cm
(l) 70.2 × 55.1 cm
(m) 70.0 × 55.2 cm
(n) 70.4 × 55.0 cm
(o) 70.2 × 55.2 cm
(p) 70.3 × 55.1 cm
(q) 70.2 × 55.1 cm
(r) 70.3 × 55.2 cm
(s) 70.3 × 55.0 cm
(t) 70.2 × 55.2 cm
(u) 70.2 × 55.2 cm
(v) 70.3 × 55.1 cm
(w) 70.3 × 55.0 cm
(x) 70.3 × 55.2 cm
(y) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(z) 70.2 × 55.1 cm
(aa) 70.3 × 55.2 cm
(bb) 70.0 × 55.2 cm
(cc) 70.3 × 55.3 cm
(dd) 70.1 × 55.2 cm
(ee) 70.0 × 55.1 cm
(ff) 70.3 × 55.2 cm
(gg) 70.3 × 55.2 cm
(hh) 70.5 × 55.2 cm
(ii) 70.0 × 55.1 cm
(jj) 70.3 × 55.1 cm
(kk) 70.3 × 55.0 cm
(ll) 70.0 × 55.2 cm
(mm) 70.4 × 55.2 cm
(nn) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(oo) 70.4 × 55.2 cm
(pp) 70.3 × 55.0 cm
(qq) 70.3 × 55.1 cm
(rr) 70.2 × 55.1 cm
(ss) 70.0 × 55.0 cm
(tt) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(uu) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(vv) 70.3 × 55.0 cm
(ww) 70.2 × 55.0 cm
(xx) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(yy) 70.4 × 55.1 cm
(zz) 70.2 × 55.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Gift of the artist through the Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program, 2017
© Brook Andrew/Copyright Agency, 2023
Gallery location
Gallery 4
Ground Level, NGV Australia
About this work
This work is a memorial to the fifty-two Tasmanian Aboriginal people whose crania were illustrated in a 1909 volume of scientific drawings by University of Melbourne anatomist Richard Berry. These crania formed part of a wider colonial practice of acquiring Aboriginal remains as trophies, a practice rooted in racist beliefs that Indigenous people were a ‘dying race’. Brook Andrew draws connections between these individuals and the anonymous figures in his work, sourced from nineteenth – and twentieth-century postcards. Linked by anonymity and shared humanity, the portraits give presence to those historically silenced and speak to the widespread violence of colonialism. Andrew’s incorporation of anonymous photographs also encourages viewers to question the evolving ethics of display regarding historical photographic archives.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria
Edition
artist's proof
Inscription
(w) inscribed (vertically) in fibre-tipped pen on right side c.: ‘Portrait 23’ BAndrew 2013
Accession Number
2017.57.a-zz
Department
Contemporary Art
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Portraits Relationships and Interactions
Subjects (specific)
anthropology appropriation (imagery) Australian Aboriginal (culture and style) indigenous people postcolonialism racial discrimination
Movements
Contemporary (style of art)