Di Bresciani: A New Look at Australian Light

Introduced by Dr Gerard Vaughan AM, previously Director of the National Gallery of Victoria and the National Gallery of Australia; and with opening chapters by Deirdre Cannon of the National Gallery of Australia, the book traces Di Bresciani’s career as an artist with special reference to 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 Piers Lane AO, Pam Kershaw and Merron Jean Kirby OAM; and representatives of the Royal Over-Seas League in Australia and Over-Seas, and University College, the University of Melbourne.

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 perceptions of Australian light as the artist has experienced it.

A view of Australian light that is subtle and changing, a light that transforms colours and landscape in delicate, fleeting and subtle ways. It contrasts totally with the harshness of bright sunlight at other times of day. The light around dawn and sunset is endlessly nuanced and changing. These moments often have a transcendent quality to them. As the light changes, our perceptions and emotions respond differently. This is where my art lives.” Di Bresciani July 2022

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.

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. This development in Di Bresciani’s painting technique is dependent on her immediate perceptions of light and allows us a view into her unique look at Australian light.