Godwin Bradbeer - Drawing | Works on paper - Friday 6 September - Saturday 28 September 2024

New Work, Old Myths

These drawings under the title, New Work, Old Myths, suggest my continuing reflection upon the mystery of ourselves and the search for an adequate means to describe our being. In this pursuit, I recognise my entanglement in archaic ideas of what might be considered obsolete notions of nobility, veracity, identity and continuity.

Anyone familiar with my work would know that I have an enduring love for classical art – and that includes the classical art of many cultures – this I regard as a cultural endeavour to avoid skittering into oblivion. But my subject is not outside of ourselves, it is not located in history, it is rarely more than a description of our essential bodily design. The challenge therein is to find balance within our extremes, harmony amid contradiction and stasis within chaos; this I think is a pivotal endeavour of art making.

As a caveat to this, the artist should be vigilant that he is not a believer of his own promotion or victim to his own myth making. Godwin Bradbeer, artist 2024.

* Hardback copies of the artist’s monograph: Godwin Bradbeer, McKenzie, J 2018, Thames & Hudson, Port Melbourne, are available for purchase for $80