Gordon Bennett's artwork is on display at Tate Modern in Artist and Society: Citizens. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. In other words, such discrimination and historic prejudice directly relate to the current cultural conflict and ongoing search for identity for Indigenous Australians (NGV 2014). In his Welt series of paintings of the early 1990s, he painted over the created scarified surface of Jackson Pollock inspired drip paintings in matt black. Please also be aware that you may see certain words or descriptions in this catalogue which reflect the authors attitude or that of the period in which the item was created and may now be considered offensive. Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999. 1 / 1 - Notes to Basquiat - Big Shoes - 2002. Gordon Bennett (19552014) worked for Telecom Australia before quitting his job at the age of thirty and enrolling in a fine arts degree at Queensland College of Art. within, the narratives of the past.". In the wake of his untimely death less than two years ago, Gordon Bennett has been championed as a hero of Australian art who drew inspiration from Australias colonial past and postcolonial present to powerfully interrogate the role of language in structuring the ideologies that so determine our personal and cultural identities. This painting emanates from the 'Notes to Basquiat' series of paintings, where the artist takes appropriation to . His artwork resist and debate racial stereotyping and is critical of Australias colonial history and postcolonial present. . By Julie Ewington Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia. born 1955. Three parts: a: 182 x 182cm; b: 182 x 61cm; Anchoring the composition is a confronting tortured skeletal figure, that embodies a shared stereotyping of blackness, yet more universally suggests a common humanity that beneath ones skin we are all alike underneath. Conceived as an open letter to Basquiat who died ten years earlier, the series appropriates the raw street style for which Basquiat became renowned in an attempt to communicate via the language of the New York context the similarities and crossconnections of our shared experience as human beings in separate worlds that each seek[s] to exclude, objectify and dehumanise the black body and person.1 Yet if Bennett borrows signature motifs from Basquiats oeuvre such as his use of lists and rap-like banter, he nevertheless imbues them with his own uniquely Australian symbolism. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Measurements. Attending to form as much as content enables a different view of Bennetts oeuvre and critical purpose. 30 (illus. Write an article and join a growing community of more than 163,400 academics and researchers from 4,609 institutions. I feel I can understand Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art, 'Nothing quite prepares you for the impact of this exhibition': Haring Basquiat at the NGV, Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock. Special Collections Reading Room - Item/s may be unavailable, Brolgas at twilight, 1999 / Pamela Griffith, [Australian diaries and desk calendars 1999]. past efforts to "explain" myself - it reads: "Cultural identities are back the skin and flesh to reveal the innards, ribs and skeleton, the Synthetic polymer paint on paper These large scale history paintings of the 1990s are perhaps his best known works. My intention is in keeping with the integrity of my work in which appropriation and citation, sampling and remixing are an integral part, as are attempts to communicate a basic underlying humanity to the perception of 'blackness' in its philosophical and historical production within western cultural contexts. Provenance. Gordon Bennett, Notes to Basquiat: Facial Bones, 1999, acylic on canvas, 51 x 51 cm Courtesy Sherman Galleries, Sydney. Read more: Arguing that the codes of Western art, literature, law and science introduced with European settlement have become a prison from which indigenous people cannot escape but rather, only appropriate Bennett sought to picture such manifold conspiracies, employing the deconstructivist aesthetic of postmodernism to re-present the histories and politics underlying the Australian social landscape. Galtung, J. That is not my intention, I have had my own experiences of being crowned in Australia, as an 'Urban Aboriginal' artist underscored as that title is by racism and 'primitivism' - and I do not wear it well. Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: To Dance on a Tightrope," 1998. private collection, Brisbane. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Bennett was unaware of his mother's . Writing in his Manifest Toe in 1996, Bennett said: If I were to choose a single word to describe my art practice it would be the word question. By quoting from a range of cultures and artistic styles, he questions and undermines colonial history and racist stereotypes. Again echoing Benjamin, Bennett draws a direct link between civilisation and barbarism, or here Enlightenment and suicide. Look more closely, however, you can see paintings by the 'real' Bennett displayed on the walls. This critical orientation is particularly evident in Bennetts history paintings, displayed in the third room of the exhibition. I am trying to paint the one painting that will change the world before which even the most rabid racists will fall to their knees of course this is in itself stupid and I am a fool but I think to myself what have I got to lose by trying? synthetic polymer paint on canvas. (LogOut/ reality embodied in the idea "that we are all alike underneath" is also Review: Unfinished Business: The art of Gordon Bennett, QAGOMA, Brisbane. This major display, drawn from the National Gallery's collection, brings together works by First Nations and non-Indigenous artists from across Australia, including work by artists from Asia and the Pacific. Gordon BennettNotes to Basquiat: Boogieman Blues 1999acrylic on linen182.5 x 182.5cmCollection: Private, Adelaide The Estate of Gordon Bennett. We notify you each time your favorite artists feature in an exhibition, auction or the press, Access detailed sales records for over 657,106 artists, and more than two decades of past auction results, Buy unsold paintings, prints and more for the best price, Notes to Basquiat: Myth of The Western Man ,2001, Notes to Basquiat: Cut the Circle II ,2001, Home Decor (After Margaret Presont) ; Preston+DeStijl = Citizen (My Boomerang Won't Come Back) 1996 - Gordon Bennett, Home Decor (Counter Composition) Black Swan, 1999 - Gordon Bennett. signed, dated and inscribed verso upper left: G.Bennett 9-6-2000 / Notes to Basquiat: Liberty / acrylic / 152 x 188cm. Read more: Change). ibid., p. 22, Important Australian + International Fine Art. (2014). His three paintings titled Possession Island are based on a 19th century etching by Samuel Calvert. Gordon Bennett. ; Signed; . Notes to Basquiat: Famous boomerang 1998 Identities Jean-Michel Basquiat I salute you. Gordon Bennetts series Notes to Basquiat Get the best price for your artwork or collection. we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 183 x 152.3 x 3.2cm, The Estate of Gordon Bennett Private Collection, Adelaide, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. To learn more about Copies Direct watch this. An Aboriginal man is inserted into the picture whose exploding head is turning into stars. He did not discover his Aboriginal heritage until around age 11 and always resisted being pigeonholed as an Aboriginal artist. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia Inscriptions: "G. Bennett Nov. 1999 / Notes to Basquiat: Untitled"--On verso. (1999). inscribed in pencil on reverse : G Bennett 19-5-2000 / "NOTES TO BASQUIAT : DOUBLE VISION" / Acrylic on Linen 152 x 182.5 cms / Jean Cocteau "orpheus" / MIRRORS WOULD DO WELL / TO REFLECT MORE". Bennett updates this image in Possession Island (Abstraction) by concealing the indigenous servant beneath the abstract and conceptual style of Kazimir Malevich. Bennett has reinterpreted their statement as a comment on the government's lack of apology to the Stolen Generations. He also wrote an open letter to the dead artist celebrating their cultural and artistic similarities, as well as their shared love of jazz, rap and hip-hop. of your drawing of the human figure. In its wake the pile of rubble grows skyward. Gordon Bennett was an Indigenous Australian artist whose work primarily conveyed indigenous identity struggles, particularly through the subject of colonization and racial injustice. 102: GORDON BENNETT born 1955 Notes to Basquiat. These shapes are coloured red, yellow and black referencing the Aboriginal flag and loss of a culture. I guess it spoke to me of the traces Sold for $98,182 (inc. BP) in Auction 65 - 10 November 2021, Melbourne. )Man + Space: Kwangju Biennale 2000, exhibition catalogue, Kwangju Biennale Foundation, South Korea, 2000, p. 273 (illus. His sophisticated mimicry becomes two-fold in his quotation of Margaret Prestons woodcut design of a fish. This painting emanates from the 'Notes to Basquiat' series of paintings, where the artist takes appropriation to a new level within his practice. With the invitation to exhibit in a contemporary art fair at New Yorks Gramercy Hotel as catalyst, in 1998 Bennett embarked upon his celebrated Notes to Basquiat series paying homage to the work of Neo-Expressionist painter Jean-Michel Basquiat the first African American to receive international art world acclaim who also shared a similar preoccupation with semiotics and visual language as instruments of marginalisation. Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. The pop art inspired paintings of the Coloured People and Interiors series seem glossier and less political than Bennetts other work, but this is not the case. It weaves . The late artist, of Indigenous and Anglo-Celtic ancestry, expressed his disgust through wit and anger in a variety of . The University of Queensland, Brisbane Acquired with the Assistance of the Visual Arts and Crafts Board of the Australia Council, 1989, The Estate of Gordon Bennett Collection: The University of Queensland. John Saxby (Editor), Look, 'The art that made me: Reg Mombassa', Sydney, Nov 2015, 13. and painterly fields of your work and particularly to the layered lines In the late 1990s, he embarked on two consecutive series of paintings, the Home Dcor series, and Notes to Basquiat. In Abstraction (Native), from the Abstraction series of 20102013, Bennett imposes the face of Australian politician and social activist Peter Garrett (formerly the front man of Australian rock band, Midnight Oil) onto an abstracted human figure. View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow. (Ed.). Open from 12 noon Anzac Day Closed Good Friday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees 2023, See Kelly Gellatly, Citizen in the making: The art of Gordon Bennett, in, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101 Australia. By peeling Ewen McDonald (Editor), Biennale of Sydney 2000, Sydney, 2000, 39 (colour illus. I confess I used to think so, but seeing this exhibition has made me reconsider. Gordon Bennett was an Indigenous Australian artist whose work primarily conveyed indigenous identity struggles, particularly through the subject of colonization and racial injustice. For example, the small painting of a black angel in the installation in the first room of the exhibition titled Psycho(d)rama (1990) recurs in Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (2001). His playful yet powerfully political artworks borrow images from other artists and mix and re-contextualise elements from Western and non-Western art history. Synthetic polymer paint on paper Bennetts painting Notes to Basquiat (2001) presents distinctly cultural conflict in contemporary Australian society. Add to favourites. They often use the dots associated with Aboriginal Western Desert painting intertwined with western systems of realist depiction. Its In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition . Collection: Bendigo Art Gallery, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. Mclean, I. Selected new items on display in Main Reading Room. Art challenges and influences public opinion on conflict, yet more importantly it identifies injustices inherent to the cultural relationships and identities within a society. Possession Island 1991 We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism. Bennett directly referenced the work of many other artists throughout his career, including Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Vincent Van Gogh. Not only is art about political content, form is also at stake. Susan Best receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council .
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