The images include historical footage of Indigenous people and details of some of Bennetts own paintings. However, in each image the grid effectively highlights the controlled order and structure of knowledge systems and learning in Western culture, and how these frame and influence perception and understanding of self, history and culture. The emphasis on making art about art which was the focus of his non-representational abstract paintings, contrasts clearly with the focus on social critique that was integral to Bennetts earlier work, and was intended also to make people aware that I am an artist first and not a professional Aborigine.2 In this respect, Bennetts non representational abstract works, despite their overt emphasis on visual concerns, may be seen as reflecting his engagement with questions of identity, knowledge and perception. However, while apparently recognising and presenting these motifs/symbols as signifiers of meaning, Citizen does not appear to have the same interest as Bennett in interrogating the systems and values these motifs represent or the role they have played in shaping identity, history and understanding. It is also a direct reference to biblical stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. | Tate Images. Layers of images superimposed with words. Bennett repositions the subject of the painting in other ways too, by including black footprints that diminish into the background of the composition. Bennett has continued to work in new ways with materials, techniques and images throughout his career, resisting any classification or confinement according to style. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name. This includes a focus on the role and power of language, including visual representations, in shaping identity, culture and history. Nov 26, 2012 - The paintings of Gordon Bennett are loaded with graphic detail. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. Bennett employs this system using diagrams often labelled with acronyms, such as CVP (central vanishing point), that refer to key features of the system. JeanMichel Basquiat, crowned a black urban artist, was well known for his spontaneous and gestural paintings, which reflect the artists involvement in the graffiti culture of the United States. Looking closely at the central panel we realise that the luminous sky is described with the dots that Bennett used in early works to signify Aboriginal art. In Possession Island No 2 this figure is concealed and transformed into an abstract totem or geometric monument coloured with the signature black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag. Such imagery has often been used by artists to unsettle the viewer and present new perspectives on familiar subjects. Immersed within a White European culture, he was unaware of his Aboriginality until his early teens. SOLD FEB 21, 2023. In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. He can be anything the viewer wants him to be: white, black or any shade in between, as was true of Australian citizens in general in our multicultural country. Using a painting technique, create a finished artwork based on one or some of these experiments. This was soon replaced by a cooler, more conceptual approach. He quotes directly from this image, which is in fact a copy of a copy, as Samuel Calvert copied this image of Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay from an image by Gilfillan, which is now lost. The simplicity of I AM suggests a universality of thought. Watch. The titles of Bennetts artworks reflect the artists awareness of the power of words/language to suggest meaning. Art can encourage people to rethink personal beliefs and positions. 35, 36. A long-distance hot-air balloon race (The International Gordon Bennett balloon race), which still continues, was inaugurated by him in 1906. In Malevichs work the black square is seen as having a strong and even spiritual presence. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Born in Monto, Queensland, Bennett was a significant figure in contemporary Indigenous Australian art . What is your personal interpretation of the abstract paintings? A gush of blood red paint shoots into the sky from his body. Bennett investigates the way stereotypes are constructed by exploring words and images in opposites. Fundamentally, he deconstructed history to question the truth of the past. The indefatigable artist has been the subject of exhibitions at the worlds most prestigious institutions, from the Museum of Modern Art and Centre Pompidou to the Stedelijk Museum and Tate Modern. Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. Lichtenstein 19231987). The process of translation from one version to the next mimics how history is endlessly translated and transformed by the vagaries oftime and by individual perspectives. The focus on designer style in these interiors, the lack of human presence, and the flat areas of colour with simple black outline, creates a strange feeling of emptiness that sets them apart from Bennetts art. Gordon Bennett 1. I decided that I was in a very interesting position: My mind and body had been effectively colonised by Western culture, and yet my Aboriginality, which had been historically, socially and personally repressed, was still part of me and I was obtaining the tools and language to explore it on my own terms. Perhaps in this sense Citizen represents an Australian everyman who recognises the wrongs of history and racist representations, but who has no real interest in going any further in asking hard questions about why they happened and what impact they caused. During 199495 at summer school Bennett learnt to make digital videos on an Apple PowerMac computer. Eventually Bennetts mother earned an official exemption that allowed her to leave the Mission. It is open to self revelation, self redemption and a myriad of rich images of self that can be built upon. The purer the bloodlines, the more Aboriginal you were. Gordon Bennett uses self- portraits to question stereotypes and labelling. This emphasises the works formal qualities and discourages any narrative or symbolic reading of it. Jenna Gribbon, Silver Tongue, 2019, Price ranges of small prints by Pablo Picasso. They act as deep welts created when tissue scars. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. They physically prevent the viewer from seeing the image clearly, but psychologically encourage the viewer to delve into the image more deeply and question: Where did these images come from that theyre relating back to in their minds in order to stage this re- enactment? This painting is based on Samuel Calverts 19th-century etching Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent on Behalf of the British Crown, AD 1770, itself a copy of a lost painting by John Alexander Gilfillan. Conversation Bill Wright talks to Gordon Bennett, in Kelly Gellatly with contributions by Bill Wright, Justin Clemens and Jane Devery, Ian McLean, Who is John Citizen? Greenaway Art Gallery, 2006, Kelly Gellatly Citizen in the making, in Kelly Gellatly, p. 24. Bennett depicts self as a black empty vessel, coffin- like with lash markings almost disguised by a thick layer of black paint. Bennetts art is not always easy to look at. Sell with Artsy Artist Series Portraits of Artists and Sculptors 113 available In the third panel of Bennetts triptych, Empire, a Roman triumphal arch frames a stately figure. Home Dcor (Algebra) Ocean, 1998 synthesises the work of Piet Mondrian(18721944), Margaret Preston (18751963) and later in the series, JeanMichel Basquiat(19601988) among others. The linear diagram that frames the kneeling figure of Bennetts mother in the central panel of Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire, and the diagrams in the lower sections of the two side panels, are typical of illustrations that explain the principles of linear perspective. In just three generations, that heritage has been lost to me. The artist has effectively communicated his beliefs on the suppression of Aboriginal culture by combining confronting imagery with the concepts of Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco Goya and Classical art. These binary opposites insider/outsider, black/white, primitive/civilised have had a powerful influence on perceptions of European and Indigenous people and culture. The final panel in the sequence of six images in Untitled is a black square. Bennett indicates the need to be reconciled within the context of culture and history to develop a full sense of identity. Possession Island (Abstraction), Gordon Bennett, 1991, Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas. Ian McLean 2. Who was Paul Keating? Reflecting the colours of the Aboriginal flag, splashes and drips of red, yellow and black paint across the surface of the painting quote the distinctive style of Jackson Pollock (19121956), which Bennett began to sample in 1990. while Bennett may have attempted, in recent years, to disconnect from the politics of his earlier practice, there is also a sense within these paintings, of the impossibility of such a task. The representation of Aborigines has been reduced to caricature. Gordon Bennett, The Manifestoe, Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett. One of the longterm goals for my work is to have my paintings returned to the pages of text books from which many of the images in them originated, where they may act as sites around which a more enlightened kind of knowledge may circulate; perhaps a knowledge that is understood from the outset as culturally relative Gordon Bennett 4. Viewed in this context, the black square in Untitled could be seen as a resilient black presence, asserting itself in the settlement narrative that Bennett deconstructed. I found people were always confusing me as a person with the content of my work. 2. How does this interpretation and analysis compare to your own? McCahon uses I AM to question notions of faith. They became a potent symbol of the celebrations. Gordon Bennett POSSESSION ISLAND 1991 Titled, dated (1992) and signed by the artist on each panel and bears various exhibition related inscriptions and labels on the stretchers, and inscribed with date of completion 29.12.91 on the reverse of the right panel Synthetic polymer paint on canvas (diptych) 162 by 130 cm each panel, 162 by 260 cm overall Bennett layered these two distinctly different artists with his own work work previously appropriated from yet another context. Bennetts use of the grotesque is evident in Outsider, 1988, which makes reference to two paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh (1853 1890) Vincents bedroom in Arles 1888, and Starry night 1889. The Notes to Basquiat: 911 series and the Camouflage series, which reflect on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the war in Iraq respectively, highlight Bennetts global perspective. Gordon Bennett born Australia 1955 Possession Island 1991 oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas (a-b) 162.0 x 260.0 cm (overall) Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. Amidst the chaos and confusion of dots and slashes of colour he remains imprisoned by the grid, reduced to servitude. In the first painting by Bennett, Possession Island 1991 (Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales), the only figure painted in full vibrant colour is an isolated Aboriginal servant holding a drinks tray. 2014. Include in your discussion reference to Bennetts appropriation of The nine shots 1985 by Imants Tillers. Their confidence was rewarded when Possession Island 1991, a triptych in which each panel measured 162 x 130 cm, sold for $384,000. While these may indicate the way maps are constructed to find different locations, they also represent the first letter of racial slurs. It speaks of colonial violence and the consequences of being on the 'wrong' side of history, purchased in 2019, this powerful and sobering work is a major acquisition for the QAGOMA Collection. A fleet of tall ships sailed around Australia as part of the commemoration of settlement. Pollock was influenced by Navaho sand paintings, which were created on the ground. Bennetts grid formations seem to imprison the figures within the canvas. 40 41. I did want to explore Aboriginality, however, and it is a subject of my work as much as colonialism and the narratives and language that frame it, and the language that has consistently framed me. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. It alludes to ownership and territory. Jenna Gribbon, April studio, parting glance, 2021. Read through the profiles and market analysis for the top 200 Indigenous artists He used his self as the vehicle to do so. On each corner of the grid are the letters A B C D . In 1989, a year after graduating from art college, his work was included in the high profile Australian Perspect a exhibition of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. In a conceptual sense I was liberated from the binary prison of self and other; the wall had disintegrated but where was I? Theosophy means god wisdom, the belief that everything living or dead was put together from basic blocks that lead towards consciousness. To the right of the canvas, Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 is clearly referenced. The incorporation of Blue Poles calls to mind an era of great reform in Australian politics. Gordon Bennett explores these ideas in Self portrait: Interior/ Exterior , 1992. Like many others at that time, Bennett was inspired by the work of the historian Henry Reynolds. This was common practice among young Aboriginal girls and women. How does this work compare with conventional self-portraits? His work also includes performance art, video, photography and printmaking. Gordon Bennett 6, I first learnt about Aborigines in primary school, as part of the social studies curriculum I learnt that Aborigines had dark brown skin, thin limbs, thick lips, black hair and dark brown eyes. The Stripe series of abstract paintings represents a kind of freedom for me as an artist. Gordon Bennett 3. Possession Island No 2 is representative of Bennetts wider practice, which explores issues of post-colonisation and Aboriginal identity. In Possession Island, 1991, Bennett meticulously photocopies and enlarges Calverts image so that it can be projected, cropped and copied onto the canvas. Possession Island is a small island off the coast of northern Queensland, near the tip of Cape York, the most northerly point of mainland Australia. Possession Island (1991), for example, presents shadowy renditions of Captain Cook and his party against a watery blue ground, overlayed with . This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. The motivation behind the abstract paintings was complex but in part it reflects Bennetts ongoing concerns about issues related to the reception of his work. However behind the neat facade and pleasantries of suburban life, Bennett was haunted by racism and the same derogatory opinions of Aboriginal people that he quietly endured in the workforce. Discuss with reference to a selection of at least three works, clearly identifying stylistic shifts, and evidence of conceptual unity. However, for Bennett, dot painting also became a powerful expression of the connections between nature and culture, which are integral to representation in Aboriginal art. Neither had I thought to question the representation of Aborigines as the quintessential primitive Other against which the civilized collective Self of my peers was measured. Possession Island (Appendix 1) 1991 and Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (Appendix 2) 2001 will be discussed in relation to Henri's statement. Explain how you believe Bennett communicates and presents questions and complexities in his work. Our understanding of the meanings associated with visual signs is linked to cultural codes, conventions and experience. Appropriation was a tool that enabled him to open up and re-define stereotypes and bias. What legal, moral and ethical rights does an artist have to control the way their work is seen and viewed in exhibitions, books or online. Voir plus d'ides sur le thme toile de lin, basquiat, art australien.
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