Man and Eclipse

Man and Eclipse presents consistently with Bradbeer's longstanding figurative project of a naked man, dark against a light background. The figure presents an aspect of human guilt and shame because the figure covers his face with his hand. Additionally the head obscures a sun which might, ambiguously, be a halo. The image is thus of a double eclipse. The latter aspect of this state suggests a man uncomfortable and perhaps in opposition to the nature that sustains him. The image continues a longstanding figurative tradition but positions that within a contemporary awareness of environmental and climatic imbalance.

The work was purchased by the Art Gallery of Ballarat for its collection, and specifically for inclusion in the exhibition, the Naked and the Nude, which was accompanied by substantial catalogue. Catalogue essays by the gallery director, Gordon Morrison, and academic and arts writer Elizabeth Cross.