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• Auction House:
  W T Macalister
• Sale Name:
  40 Years of Leo Bensemann
• Sale Date:
  28 Mar 2012 ~ 6:30pm (NZDT)
• Lot #:
  8
• Lot Description:
  Leo Bensemann
  (1912-1986)
  In 1949 Bensemann wrote to his friend the composer Douglas Lilburn: ‘my 433rd self-portrait is not to be sneezed at'. His ironic tone alludes to his
  Oil on canvas
  510 x 392mm
• References:
  LB to Douglas Lilburn, 8 April 1949, quoted in Simpson, Fantastica, p. 79. For the earliest and latest of these, see Simpson, Fantastica, pp. 13, 198. All three works are reproduced in Otto, Portraits, pp. 86 -87, as is the photograph on which they were based.
• Notes:
  In 1949 Bensemann wrote to his friend the composer Douglas Lilburn: 'my 433rd self-portrait is not to be sneezed at'. His ironic tone alludes to his fondness for the self-portrait as a genre. In Caroline Otto's Portraits, eleven such self-portraits in oils are reproduced and there are several others (at least five) in pencil. These extend right throughout his career from 1932 to 1981 - a full half-century of self-representation. Among the works exhibited in this auction two self-portraits are included, one from the 1950s (when Bensemann was in his forties) and one from the 1970s (when he was in his sixties). Neither work is signed or dated. During the 1950s Bensemann exhibited self- portraits twice, at Group Shows in 1953 and 1958. It is impossible now to identify with certainty which these works were, but in all likelihood the one included here was shown in 1958 (see Simpson, Fantastica, p. 82). In three self-portraits of the 1950's, all showing Bensemann smoking a pipe, the backgrounds to the figure are abstract and gestural in style, in two cases combining red, blue and yellow, while in the other (the work shown here) the background is predominantly shades of blue, with some touches of brown. This abstract background, providing a loose frame for the head, is somewhat reminiscent of the background to a 1917 self-portrait by the Austrian expressionist Oskar Kokoschka, not normally an artist one would associate with Bensemann. In this work Bensemann depicts himself wearing a dark brown jacket, very sketchily painted, with a red open-necked shirt. Though the placement of the figure is frontal it is orientated somewhat to the diagonal, creating a dynamic effect. The blue-black hair and distinctively joined-up and irregularly shaped eyebrows are the most dominant features. The face is vigorously modelled, while the complexion of the full-faced figure is ruddy and warm, with the colour of the lips harmonising with the red shirt. In this painting the artist honestly confronts the realities of middle-age: the bulky torso, the somewhat fleshy face with an incipient double chin. The expression, however, is calm and resolute, as compared to the troubled demeanour of the strikingly handsome person seen in the self-portraits of twenty years earlier.
• Estimate:
  NZ$12,000 - 15,000
• Realised Price:
  *****
  

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• Category:
  Art

This Sale has been held and this item is no longer available. Details are provided for information purposes only.