Bill Henson is one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists. Despite working in photography, his work can appear painterly, trading in a chiaroscuro that recalls the Old Masters of the Renaissance. Henson explores twilight zones – the space between night and day, adolescence and adulthood, and nature and civilisation – drawing out the slipstream between the known and unknowable.

Measuring 166cm in height from an edition of only five, ‘Untitled 1992/3’ is a work of sublime, rare proportions. It comes from an early and important series in which Henson captured naked figures cavorting together in a junkyard, their forms reminiscent of satyrs or nymph-like apparitions. In this work, two youths embrace before an oxidising, crumpled car that another figure clambers over. The composition has the rich grandeur and passion of a Renaissance masterpiece.

A few short years after this series, Henson would represent Australia at the 1995 Venice Biennale. He has since been the subject of numerous monographs and survey exhibitions, and is in the collection of national, state, regional and territory galleries. Internationally, he is represented at, among other institutions, Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, Tate Collection, London, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

This particular work is represented across public institutions, including at the Auckland Art Gallery and Art Gallery of New South Wales where it was exhibited in 2013. For collectors of important photography and contemporary art, this is a masterpiece.

Bill HENSON (1955 - )
'Untitled 1992/93' 1992-93
Type C photograph
Edition of 5
Image Size: 166 x 108 cm
Dimensions: 195 x 135 x 5 cm
Signed: signed, dated and inscribed below image (and below mount)
Comes with Letter of Provenance

Exhibited: Bill Henson cloud landscapes, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 25 May 2013–22 Sep 2013Published: Bill Henson and Judy Annear, Mnemosyne, Sydney, 2005, 393 (colour illus.).

Another impression of this work is held in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales (accession number: 323.1993) and the Auckland Art Gallery (accession number: 1994/12/2).

Condition: Very Good 
(c) The Artist or Assignee