Amber Creswell Bell: About Face
Contemporary portrait painting in Australia and New Zealand
Publisher: Thames & Hudson Australia Pty Ltd
Publication date: 24 September 2024
Reviewed by Emma-Kate Wilson
Even though About Face is her sixth art book, the genre of portraiture is Amber Creswell Bell’s favourite. “I adore portraiture! My own art collection is very portrait-heavy,” she says. “My family home had portraits, and I was always fond of this portrait my mum had of a woman with a very long neck.”
Amber Creswell Bell: About Face (Thames & Hudson Australia Pty Ltd)
The writer, gallery director, and curator reveals that portraits have long divided Australians. “Today one of the reigning influences on portraiture in this country is the Archibald Prize – it is the one event of the year that many people visit a gallery or engage with art in any way, and art makes the prime-time news,” Creswell Bell shares. However, she goes on to report that it’s one of the most difficult genres to sell in galleries. “The reasons are often obscure to me: not wanting to hang a stranger’s face in their home. Or even a sense of being watched by the painting,” Creswell Bell adds.
And so, a few years back, she went on to curate a group show called ABOUT FACE to alter that perspective. One that explores portraits, not as a likeness (Creswell Bell says we have cameras for that), but as an interpretation which extends from how we so comfortably view landscapes and still life. “In writing this book, I wanted to reveal the number of intents, methods and approaches in contemporary portrait practices,” she reveals.
Amber Creswell Bell
Once Creswell Bell started her sixth book, portraits began to appear everywhere she looked. “I was meeting portrait painters at events, I was seeing exhibitions of portraits painters, and portraits were dropping into my Instagram algorithm,” she says, “I was squirreling away notes along the way.”
“It started with a spreadsheet – a brain dump, an amalgamation of notes, a careful consideration of the websites of key commercial galleries, the websites of portrait prizes and who might have featured in the finalist lists over the last 10 years,” Creswell Bell continues. “And then it is finessed with careful consideration of diversity: diversity of style, age, cultural background, geography, career point, gender and so on – until it feels balanced and nice.”
“I am often most drawn to artists that I know have a good story to tell, a good personality. And there is a fair whack of gut feel.”
Iconic names in the portrait world appear: Abdul Abdullah, Blak Douglas, Prudence Flint, Michael Zavros, Ben Quilty, and Vincent Namatjira. Plus, some emerging voices like Natasha Walsh, Thea Anamara Perkins, and surrealist Sara Birns. The genre is expanded to include the expressive: Del Kathryn Barton, Karen Black, Sally Bourke, or Kim Leutwyler. And yet, throughout the book, we also see the soft recollections of a person; proving the multifaceted aspects of portraiture.
Creswell Bell’s love of portraits comes through in her selection and writing. The words and pages are alive with energy. Or maybe that’s just all the faces watching you as you read.
Emma-Kate Wilson is an art and design writer and editor based on Gumbaynggirr Country (Bellingen, New South Wales).
Originally published in print – Art Almanac, December 2024 / January 2025 issue, pp. 26–37
