Anita DeSoto “presents figures in states of repose, ecstasy, or introversion.”(1) Her “central concern is the human figure, standing in for a sense of psychic identity.”(2) She is an enchanter who mixes narcissism with mockery, biography with symbolism, the psychosexual of pleasure and pain. “The draughtsmanship is flawless … the drawing immaculate … the representational element of the painting completely convincing.”(3)

Although undeniably beautiful and delivered with awe-inspiring technical virtuosity, each work in this exhibition Cross My Heart is embellished with tension, perversity and “self-aware melodramas.”(4) DeSoto delves into the crevasses of the mind, into her subject’s frailties, “exposing the vulnerabilities of their physical and emotional states.”(5)

DeSoto conflates the martyrs of religion with modern rituals. These works are defiant, transgressive and yet we sense what they feel.(6) In “Love Child” (2009) narratives of innocence arise. In the powerful Speak No Evil (2008) the artist’s self-portrait is animated by an eye that watches – fixes – the viewer in its gaze. It is we who are being watched and admonished.

Two remarkable works dominate this exhibition and attest to DeSoto’s arrival as a painter of singular importance. Neither Here Nor There (2009) subverts the normal and invests astonishing painterly and sexual tension into the traditions of portraiture. Is he being pulled or are we witness to an elaborate game of sexual bondage? In War Widow (2009) everything is revealed in the martyr’s crucifixion position of upside down and what at first seems to be a narrative only about the body becomes the parable of a widow with her legs wreathed in flowers and ribbons. These works go where few could and do so with such strength and assurance that the destabilising elements of decadent pleasure and pain become but small contributory components of utterly masterful works.

1. Maari McCluskey, Drawn from Life: The Art of Anita DeSoto, Art New Zealand.
2. David Eggleton, Pleasure and Paint: The Decadent World of Anita DeSoto, Listener, August 25, 2007.
3. T J McNamara, “Tracing the Thought…,” New Zealand Herald, April 10, 2008.
4. David Eggleton, op.cit. 5. Maari McCluskey, op.cit. 6. David Eggleton, op.cit.