Caroline
Caroline (Ruby Cumming, after Leo Bensemann)
Ruby Cumming is the 'living canvas' for Caroline, a performance painting referencing Leo Bensemann's portrait of his friend, Caroline Oliver, painted in 1940.
The work was created before an audience as a special event hosted by the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, Wellington, in association with the exhibition, “Leo Bensemann & Friends: Portraiture and The Group,” curated by art historian Peter Simpson. 11 March 2017.
Caroline (Ruby Cumming, after Leo Bensemann), archival pigment print, edition 1/1, 50 x 64cm, 2017
Reference portrait, Caroline Oliver, by Leo Bensemann (1940) at the New Zealand Portrait Gallery
Sculpting Ruby/Caroline’s ‘hair’
Pre-performance
Painting Ruby begins…
Ruby transformed into ‘Caroline’
Photographing ‘Caroline’
Ruby Cumming poses with Leo Benseman's original painting, 'Caroline Oliver' (1940), holding a small print of the completed portrait of herself as 'Caroline’.