Painted between 1990 and 1992. At this time Valadon was captivated by Greek and Minoan mythology and the way the female body was used to carry and reveal meaning. These works have great optimism and are a testimony to the goodness and healing powers of women. They were exhibited at the Blaxland Gallery Sydney.
Before the Fall won the Blake Religious Art Prize, and One Flesh was exhibited in the Archibald and won the Portia Geach Portrait Prize. Other works were exhibited in the Sulman exhibition, and Ruth Cracknell’s portrait purchased for the National Portrait Gallery. Dr Dian Losche described the exhibition: “Valadon entices the viewer into speculation in the mythical planes of these portraits by lush, baroque opulence of paint, ornament and symbol. These paintings are blatant in their imagery, theatricality and seduction. Although we humans inhabit this earth do we not also soar and dive between the excesses of heaven and hell? It is to such spaces, but displacing the heaven and hell of Christianity, that Rosemary Valadon’s paintings lead us.”
cat. essay Blaxland Gallery exhibition Sept 1992 – The Goddess Series