“Bromleys are only good for holiday houses and children’s bedrooms,” Yuge Bromley tells the camera eight minutes into a new documentary about her husband, the artist David Bromley. She’s quoting a critic, of course – before scoffing that these are “two of my favourite places – the funnest places in the world!”
It’s one of a string of common criticisms of Bromley’s work that open a new documentary, Bromley: Light After Dark. They range from backhanded compliments (“Peter Pan of the art world”) and faint praise (“likable”) to withering dismissal (“purely decorative” and “mass-produced”). As opening sequences go, it’s quite a choice, and an acknowledgment that the Sheffield-born, Adelaide-raised and Victoria-based painter, sculptor and entrepreneur is as divisive as he is popular.
