Thursday 31 July 2008

Monobrow mania

(a.k.a "My day of Ronnie van Hout")

I defy any reader to suggest a better example of the monobrow in New Zealand art than Rita Angus's 1938 portrait of Leo Bensemann



However, Melbourne's Hell Gallery recently staged a Monobrow exhibition, featuring work by several NZ artists, including Jacquelyn Greenbank, Emily Ireland and Ronnie van Hout:




Try getting that picture out of your head.

Images from top

Rita Angus, Leo Bensemann, 1938. Oil on canvas. Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, gift of the Rita Angus Estate 1998. From the Te Papa website.

Ronnie van Hout, c. 2008.

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