David Bromley

David Bromley, Belinda in Silver, 2008

Acrylic with Silver Leaf and Screen Print on Canvas, 47 5/8 x 35 3/4 x 1 1/8 in. (121 x 91 x 3 cm)

David Bromley (1960 – ) is among Australia’s most popular artists. His work is imbued with a sense of
whimsy and nostalgia, cut by pop art influence from Andy Warhol. He is largely self-taught and best
known for two subjects: the Boy’s Own series which derives from 1950s children’s books and his
portraits of female nudes, of which ‘Belinda in Silver’ is an example.


Large, beguiling and graphic, ‘Belinda in Silver’ is quintessential Bromley. It fuses the aesthetic tradition
of the female nude with a fashion sensibility. Bromley’s women could be actresses, pop stars or models
– the kind of women you want to know. He evokes how glamorous women, particularly those of a
bygone era, are memorialized as icons. Like Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe, ‘Belinda in Silver’ is at once
seductive and distant, slashed with white and orange paint yet commanding our attention.