If musician and visual artist Di Bresciani’s first book explored the synchronicities of colour and sound as they were referenced in her paintings at that time, Di Bresciani: A New Look at Australian Light concentrates on light and its importance to so many aspects of human sensory perception. Even more particularly, Bresciani’s recent paintings, with their colours and compositional rhythms, are based on the perception of Australian light as the artist has experienced it in the Mallee where she grew up. The summer light of the Mallee is golden, with mysterious mirages often creating a shimmering haze over the wheatfields. With almost 200 vibrant colour reproductions of the paintings and their details, this volume serves as a potent revelation of Australian light caught in its many moods and transposed by the artist into her unique abstractions.
Introduced by Dr Gerard Vaughan, previously Director of the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia, and with opening chapters by Deirdre Cannon, the book traces Di Bresciani’s career as an artist with special reference to the recent work. In addition, the artist herself has contributed five chapters explaining how light features in Australia’s history of art and the broader historical and cultural context. Further texts have been provided by musician, Dr Piers Lane, arts identities Pam Kershaw and Merron Jean Kirby, and representatives of the Royal Over-Seas League in London and University College, the University of Melbourne.
An unusual feature of this richly illustrated publication is the reproduction of details of the paintings that focus on the way in which elements of light have been woven into the abstracted landscapes using energetic painterly brushstrokes. This development in Di Bresciani’s painting technique is dependent on her immediate perceptions of light and is responsible for the claim that these paintings are, indeed, new, and unique visions of Australian light.
