Asustado 1945

Curator: Here we have Joy Hester's arresting ink drawing, “Asustado,” created in 1945, part of the collection at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Editor: "Arresting" is right. The eyes...they're drawing me in but I don't think I want to be. A palpable sense of anxiety is emanating from this face. Is this truly a portrait? Curator: It’s believed to be a self-portrait, or at least a representation of inner turmoil rendered through figuration and line. Look at the frenetic energy in the hatching, and the bold, almost violent application of ink washes around the eyes. Editor: Precisely. It strikes me less as a likeness and more as an Expressionistic study in psychological space. The asymmetry, the exaggeration...it seems like she is employing caricature techniques to portray fear. There are other portraits like this but very few dare to look at pain in this style. Curator: The art scene of mid-1940s Australia was contending with the fallout of global conflict. Hester, associated with the Heide Circle, was deeply engaged with modernist ideas circulating at the time and grappling with personal challenges, particularly an awareness of her mortality following a tuberculosis diagnosis. Editor: Did this illness affect Hester and influence her process as an artist? The starkness of the ink, the limited palette, almost seems symptomatic of a body betrayed, distilled into its most vulnerable form. Curator: Her engagement with pen and ink shows deliberate choices about the constraints of material and also about the art world she found herself navigating as a young artist. She harnesses the potential of line to evoke states of being – that of heightened emotion as we can plainly see. Editor: Yes, I read this portrait not just as a record of fear, but as a semiotic index, hinting at wider anxieties shaping the individual in the shadow of war and uncertainty. Its cultural context, its modernist leanings, everything seems relevant, it tells a very important and revealing story about Australia’s modernism at the time. Curator: I agree, understanding her artistic influences and historical backdrop truly deepens the piece's intensity. We can feel both vulnerability and the human condition reflected in these inky depths. Editor: And Hester, with a deft hand and a unflinching eye for truth, has given these ideas compelling, visual shape.