For art’s sake: The Venice you don’t know … hidden courtyards, forgotten corners, secret gardens
For Brisbane artist David Henderson Venice is a perennial source of inspiration, with his latest exhibition reflecting his love for this famous Italian city built on water.
Everyone has their own Venice. For Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos it was the perfect location recently for a $US50 million wedding. That large sum seemed to focus everyone’s attention on the wedding, which elicited protest and disapproval from some quarters.
Brisbane artist David Henderson is a regular visitor to Venice and he understands the allure for Bezos.
“It can be a place of fantasy and extravagance,” Henderson admits. “It has that theatrical dimension, which makes it suitable for a celebrity wedding.”
Venice means different things to different people. In literary terms it was a bit spooky in Daphne du Maurier’s story Don’t Look Now, which was turned into a classic 1973 film starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. The film showed a darker more sinister side to Venice.
For German writer Thomas Mann it was the setting for the novella, Death in Venice, which in 1971 was made into a film starring Dirk Bogarde. Venice turns up in a lot of movies (including several James Bond films) and books, and it’s often in the news. We hear about the overcrowding and how locals are trying to limit the number of cruise ships visiting.
Henderson’s Venice is more subdued because he spends time there each year, outside the main tourist season. Finding quiet places away from the crowds, he has been painting his views of Venice for decades. His next exhibition, which opens at Newstead Studios on July 18, gives us tantalising glimpses of this Italian city that he loves so much.
After initial studies in architecture at QUT (formerly QIT), Henderson spent four years at London’s Royal Academy Schools, graduating in 1985. He has since held more than 30 solo exhibitions of his work, mostly in Brisbane but also in Melbourne, Sydney, London and Rome. He has been the recipient of several awards, including the S.J. Solomon Prize at the Royal Academy and on two occasions the “best of show” at the Rotary Exhibition.
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He has taught for a number of institutions and since 1995 has lectured regularly in art history for ASA (Australians Studying Abroad) Cultural Tours in France and Italy – asatours.com.au/people/tour-leader-david-henderson. This gives him an opportunity to spend time in Venice.
“I was last there in April,” Henderson says. “I was taking a tour to the South of France. Before the tour I spent time in Venice.”
He’s taking a tour to Sicily in late September and will also spend a few weeks in Venice then.
“It’s a place where I have a base,” Henderson says. “I have friends there and you can avoid the crowds. It’s a great subject and it seems to be always changing.”
His forthcoming show includes paintings of Venice, the South of France, Paris and local landscapes. Venice is a subject the artist has been exploring for decades.
“A unique quality of light, elaborate architectural set-pieces, or striking water reflections can be found in many places but it is only in Venice that all of these are combined,” he says. “This is why the city has been a favoured destination for generations of painters. It is not by chance that Turner, Sickert, Monet and many others made some of their finest works there.”
Appropriately, the paintings in this exhibition are primarily concerned with light.
“Light is for me the primary expressive element in painting,” Henderson says. “I mostly work from direct observation, which is for me the best way to bring a degree of authenticity to the subject.”
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A painting such as View from a Venetian Window (pictured, below) shows light playing on a scene glimpsed through a window. It’s a tantalising and alluring scene.
A Venetian Garden (pictured, above) shows a kind of hanging garden by a canal with a little footbridge crossing it. It is a quiet scene away from any crowds and it’s these places that the artist loves to find and record. But yes, Venice does get crowded.
“I don’t go in summer because of that,” Henderson says. “And it’s too hot then, anyway. Often the crowds are concentrated in certain areas, though, and you can get away to quieter areas. But I would say that any inconvenience is balanced by the absence of all wheeled traffic. There are only boats and sounds echoing in this city of atmosphere.”
Henderson’s Cultural Tours focus on art, architecture, gardens and history.
“One of my specialised tours is two weeks in Venice,” he says.
That sounds like a long time, really, but for Henderson that’s still not enough. He prefers to settle in for a month or so.
Brisbane is still home but Venice is his other home. And it’s the place that inspires him most.
Recent Work by David Henderson, Newstead Studios, 22 Ross St, Newstead, July 18-27.
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