Minnies Eyes

David Bromley would be pretty close to being an Australian household name. His paintings are every where. You can't open a house magazine or weekend real estate spread without seeing a Bromley in the background. I even noticed his work in three shops in Melbourne recently! But what I didn't know was he has people working for him, painting his paintings. In the recent Adelaide Review, Peter Drew writes:

"We say 'studio' because David Bromley is an artist but the term 'factory' is perhaps a better description of the production line of workers who do the majority of Bromley's actual painting. If you're lucky the artist himself might have flicked the switch on the projector and traced out the actual design of any given nude but why should he even bother? With such a mechanical process why not just pay someone else to do the actual work? Warhol did it so why can't Bromley?"

"In this sense, mass-produced art has nothing to do with self-expression. Knowing this, why would any artist choose to treat their art like a commodity? There is only one answer: MONEY."

This article is extremely confronting for Bromley! (click on photo and zoom in on article to read) It certainly answered a few questions I've always wondered. Well, now I have to own up!!! We do have a Bromley, but fortunately not in the mass-produced style we all know, my father bought it for me about 7 years ago for my birthday, we went to an exhibition and the gentleman who was holding it knows Bromley and had some of his ink drawings unframed. I think with my graphics background this drawing appealed to me more then his other paintings! I think I might have been on to something!!!! Anyway it will be interesting to see what Bromley does and whether he can re-invent himself, I hope he does! X