Ricochet features three new large-scale works of iconic portraits of female subjects within which Bezor has also included images of herself. The works have been elaborately framed to mimic classical portraits of aristocracy. Here Bezor seems to be positioning herself in the dual roles of observer and artist’s subject and she suggests that people exist merely as a succession of images in varying contexts.
For example, Marjorie and Me includes Tamara de Lempicka’s portrait of Marjorie Ferry in the foreground with Bezor’s 2005 Archibald Prize finalist work Still posing after all this time (a self-portrait) in the background.
“These works all have me in them and it made me realise how much I have always talked about the models rather than the painter,” says Bezor. “I am relating to the models and being the model myself.”
Another work, Miss Wong and Me, features Vladimir Tretchikoff’s well-known painting of Miss Wong depicted in front of Bezor’s earlier work, Taipei Tang, and the work Still posing after all this time, which is only partly visible. Bezor has long been fascinated by Miss Wong and even met the family of the real woman in Sydney.
The third of these new works, Bia and Me, features a depiction of Agnolo Bronzino’s portrait of Bia de’ Medici. Born before his first marriage, Bia was the illegitimate daughter of Cosimo de’ Medici, grand duke of Tuscany. Bezor has always related to Bia whom she resembled when she was a child.