Annette Bezor (5 April 1950 – 9 January 2020), born Annette Bateman, was an Australian painter and feminist, who lived and worked in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, South Australia. She was known for appropriating classical and pop culture images of women and using them to create stylised representations of them, often sexually charged images but not pandering to the

male gaze In feminist theory, the male gaze is the act of depicting women and the world in the visual arts and in literature from a masculine, heterosexual perspective that presents and represents women as sexual objects for the pleasure of the heteros ...

and thereby highlighting society's attitudes towards women. Her work won significant commercial and critical success. Bezor had 30 solo exhibitions, with her works exhibited throughout Australia as well as in Europe, Hong Kong, and the USA. She was a finalist in multiple art prizes in Australia, including the

Archibald Archibald is a masculine given name, composed of the Germanic elements '' erchan'' (with an original meaning of "genuine" or "precious") and ''bald'' meaning "bold". Medieval forms include Old High German and Anglo-Saxon . Erkanbald, bishop of ...

Doug Moran Doug Moran (born 29 July 1934 in Musselburgh) is a Scottish former professional footballer. Moran is one of only three players to score more than 100 senior goals for Falkirk. During his career he made over 100 appearances for Ipswich Town. Ho ...

and Sulman prizes as well as the

Portia Geach Memorial Award The Portia Geach Memorial Award is an annual prize for Australian female portraitists. The Award was established in 1961 as a testamentary trust by Florence Kate Geach, sister of Australian painter Portia Geach, with an initial endowment of AU£ ...

in Sydney.

Early life

Bezor was born on 5 April 1950 in Adelaide,

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, into a working-class family, the second child of Alma (Billi) Smith and policeman Keith Bateman. After her parents divorced, she changed her surname to Bezor, which originated from her mother's family. She left school at 14 because of bullying, and worked in a hairdressing salon where a remark by the manager on her "puppy fat" led to her suffering from

anorexia Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gre ...

for four years. She married twice, briefly. In 1974 she enrolled in the South Australian School of Art and graduated in 1977 with a degree in

fine art In European academic traditions, fine art is developed primarily for aesthetics or creative expression, distinguishing it from decorative art or applied art, which also has to serve some practical function, such as pottery or most metalwor ...

. She afterwards said that she had felt "stultified" working in the male-dominated art school environment, and did her best work at home. In the mid-1970s the

Women's Art Movement The Women's Art Movement (WAM) was an Australian feminist art movement, founded in Sydney in 1974, Melbourne in 1974, and Adelaide in 1976 (as the Women's Art Group, or WAG). Background Such movements had already been created in other countries ...

in South Australia was strong, which Bezor found empowering.

Career

In the early 1980s, Bezor's work ''The Snake is Dead'' won critical acclaim. Her work was exhibited in Adelaide, Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne in the 1980s. She was awarded the

Australia Council The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austr ...

's studio residency at the

Cité internationale des arts The Cité internationale des arts is an artist-in-residence building complex which accommodates artists of all specialities and nationalities in Paris. It comprises two sites, one located in the Marais and the other in Montmartre. Approximatel ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

, which she took up in 1987 and where she painted ''Romance is in the Air''. This was described by her agent Paul Greenaway as a "turning point in her career", where she worked on developing her signature style of appropriating images of women and subverting them in her paintings. She continued her career after her return from Paris, achieving significant commercial and critical success. In the 1990s, her work was exhibited in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, and in the 2000s, Hong Kong, Spain,

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

and New York. She was commissioned by the

Parliament of Victoria The Parliament of Victoria is the bicameral legislature of the Australian state of Victoria that follows a Westminster-derived parliamentary system. It consists of the King, represented by the Governor of Victoria, the Legislative Assembly an ...

to paint the official portrait of the former Victorian Premier,

Joan Kirner Joan Elizabeth Kirner (née Hood; 20 June 1938 – 1 June 2015) was an Australian politician who was the 42nd Premier of Victoria, serving from 1990 to 1992. A Labor Party member of the Parliament of Victoria from 1982 to 1994, she was a mem ...

in 1994.

Later years

Bezor was diagnosed with

ovarian cancer Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...

in 2017. She continued to paint and at the same time caring for her mother until her death in 2019. The last exhibitions of her work were ''Ricochet'', at the Hill Smith Gallery in Adelaide, and a companion

retrospective exhibition A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...

, ''Ricochet 2'', at Aptos Cruz Gallery at

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

, in the Adelaide Hills, both in October 2019. Bezor died at the Mary Potter Hospice at the

Calvary North Adelaide Hospital Calvary Hospital North Adelaide is a private, not-for-profit Catholic hospital in North Adelaide. It was previously known as Calvary Hospital Adelaide, originally North Adelaide Hospital, and is one of Adelaide's oldest hospitals, having first b ...

on 9 January 2020.

Gallery holdings

*The Art Gallery of South Australia holds six of Bezor's works, including ''Jackie and Jude (Version ii)'', which is on display in Gallery 6 as a tribute to her legacy. *The Art Gallery of New South Wales holds two paintings, ''Pigs'' and ''Rosie as Eve''. *The

National Gallery of Victoria The National Gallery of Victoria, popularly known as the NGV, is an art museum in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is Australia's oldest and most visited art museum. The NGV houses an encyclopedic art collection across two ...

holds three works, including ''The Snake is Dead''.

Awards

Bezor's work has been selected as finalists in several major art prizes, and has won three smaller ones. *

Archibald Prize The Archibald Prize is an Australian portraiture art prize for painting, generally seen as the most prestigious portrait prize in Australia. It was first awarded in 1921 after the receipt of a bequest from J. F. Archibald, the editor ...

, 2004 & 2005, finalist (2005 for ''Still posing after all this time (a self-portrait)'') *

Sir John Sulman Prize The Sir John Sulman Prize is one of Australia's longest-running art prizes, having been established in 1936. It is now held concurrently with the Archibald Prize, Australia's best-known art prize, and also with the Wynne Prize, at the Art Galler ...

, 1992, 2002 & 2009, finalist *

, 1993 & 1999, finalist *

John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize The John McCaughey Prize, also known as the John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, McCaughey Prize, McCaughey Art Prize or McCaughey Art Award, is an Australian art prize awarded to an artist or artists, under which the National Gallery of Victoria ...

, 1981, 1983 & 1994, finalist * Sara Weis Award, 1992, first prize * Maude Vizard Wholohan Art Prize, co-winner * John Christie Wright Memorial Prize for Life Drawing and Painting, 1977, winner

Fellowships

*2010 Arts SA Fellowship *1990

Fellowship

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bezor, Annette 1950 births 2020 deaths Artists from South Australia Artists from Adelaide Australian women painters 20th-century Australian painters 21st-century Australian painters 20th-century Australian women artists 21st-century Australian women artists