FOR more than 25 years, Bill Henson has been called controversial — and bombastic, melodramatic and overwrought. But it was only the art world that cared. Occasionally it voiced some discomfort, but mostly there was admiration for an artist whose moody use of light and dark subject matter was in the spirit of bad-boy painter Caravaggio and hard-drinking poet Baudelaire. But this time the police have stepped in, a prime minister has called his pictures "revolting", and "that Bill Henson" has come close to being a notorious household name.
Bill Henson: 'How do you suggest the whole world in a hand?' | Art and design | The Guardian
IN a move that could reignite the children-in-art debate, a Bill Henson photo of a naked girl has been reproduced in an art catalogue. The photograph depicts a naked girl, apparently a teenager but whose age is unknown, lying on sheets, her legs parted. The girl appears to be sleeping. Henson created the work in and it was exhibited in , The Australian reports.
I'm in a dead-end street in Melbourne's inner north , standing at an ivy-draped brick wall and a towering gate. Behind the gate lives Bill Henson, one of Australia's greatest, and most controversial, photographers. I press the buzzer, thinking of what Henson's friend, Barry Humphries, said about this palmshaded compound: a visit, he wrote, is "always a great event".
Bill Henson born 7 October [1] is an Australian contemporary art photographer. Henson has exhibited nationally and internationally in galleries such as the Solomon R. His current practice involves holding one exhibition in Australia every two years, and up to three overseas exhibitions each year. The use of chiaroscuro [2] is common throughout his works, through underexposure and adjustment in printing. His photographs' use of bokeh is intended to give them a painterly atmosphere.