Art about art seems appropriate for the time being. Sell with Artsy Artist Series Portraits of Artists and Sculptors 113 available In many images of the crucifixion, including the painting by Veneziano illustrated, Mary Magdalene is kneeling at the foot of the cross washing and anointing Christs feet in an act of devotion . Often describing his own practice of borrowing images as quoting, Bennett re-contextualised existing images to challenge the viewer to question and see alternative perspectives. The representation of Aborigines has been reduced to caricature. Explore a range of ideas and media within your work. The persistence of language references the way language controls and defines how we understand ourselves and our world. 4 While artists often have limited control over how their work is exhibited after it has been sold, Bennett also refused to exhibit his work in Aboriginal art exhibitions, preferring: to be conceived as a contemporary artist who just happens to be indigenous and whose work encompasses an investigation of aboriginality and the construction of identity within a broad range of complex and interconnected issues. ), Heide Museum of Modern Art , Melbourne, 2004 pp. Identity is fixed and self is understood in the context of words such as Abo, Boong, Coon and Darkie . Bennett was in possession of all four, all of which will become evident upon a glance at a summary of his life. Once again, the arena of self- portraiture becomes a vehicle to take over and challenge stereotypes. The effect is that they dissolve into a mass of colour, dots and slashes of paint . 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. I didnt go to art college to graduate as an Aboriginal Artist. We would like to hear from you. Bennett has often used dots in his artworks as part of his investigation of issues of identity, and history. ). GORDON BENNETT SOLO IN QUEENSLAND at News Aboriginal Art Directory In the following year he was awarded the prestigious Mot et Chandon prize with his painting The Nine Ricochets (Fall down black fella, jump up white fella), 1990. The Other is clearly marked out as not only different but by necessity inferior. With eyes closed, these heads appear as blind, mute and lifeless witnesses to the surrounding conflict and struggle. Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? He lived and worked in Brisbane. Experiment with enhancing or diminishing different layers to create a distinctive character. Early life [ edit] Gordon Bennett 2. Select two artworks by Gordon Bennett that interest you and discuss how the artists personal background, postcolonialism and/or postmodernism provide a framework for the meanings, ideas and/or formal qualities you find in the artworks. Gordon Bennett 1. I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. Symbols such as these highlight his awareness and use of visual images, forms and elements as signs. Voir plus d'ides sur le thme toile de lin, basquiat, art australien. Perhaps the most influential artist of the 20th century, Pablo Picasso may be best known for pioneering Cubism and fracturing the two-dimensional picture plane in order to convey three-dimensional space. Bennett purposefully constructed these layers to blur fixed ideas and raise questions about the way identity is constructed. The only clearly defined part of Possession Island is the black skinned male figure in the centre. By the late 1980s there was also a growing awareness within Australian society of the injustices suffered by the Indigenous population as a result of their dispossession. In Possession Island, 1991, Bennett meticulously photocopies and enlarges Calverts image so that it can be projected, cropped and copied onto the canvas. Such images have defined the nations settlement history for many generations of Australians. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? It was no accident that Bennett used this event to question the way history is written and interpreted. 1 Bill Wrights interview with Gordon Bennett in Gellatly K with contributions by Clemens, Justin; Devery, Jane; and Wright, Bill Gordon Bennett National Gallery of Victoria exhibition catalogue, Melbourne, 2007, During his childhood in the 1950s and 60s, Bennett lived with his family in Victoria and Queensland. Some of Prestons appropriations however, demeaned and trivialised the way Aborigines were depicted and understood. Gordon Bennett arrived on Christmas Island in 1979 to take a post as leader of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. Possession Island 1992. The incorporation of Blue Poles calls to mind an era of great reform in Australian politics. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. These binary opposites insider/outsider, black/white, primitive/civilised have had a powerful influence on perceptions of European and Indigenous people and culture. But this approach is central to the way many people describe and analyse his work. Gordon Bennett | Australian art, Indigenous art, Australian artists Gordon Bennett | Possession Island (Abstraction) (1991) | Artsy This education resource accompanies the retrospective exhibition Gordon Bennett (2008) which showcased 85 works by this internationally acclaimed Australian artist. 2,038 Sq. The vanishing point may also be understood as the point from which these lines extend outward past the picture plane to include the viewer in the pictorial space, positioned as observer of a self contained harmonious whole. Their confidence was rewarded when Possession Island 1991, a triptych in which each panel measured 162 x 130 cm, sold for $384,000. 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. Discuss with reference to Possession Island. On Tuesday, the Tate unveiled Gordon Bennett's Possession Island, a provocative 1991 work that takes a 19th century etching of Cook's claiming Australia for Britain, and plants a proud abstract indigenous flag on it. 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. There are many visual signs that recur throughout Bennetts artworks, including: Each of these signs brings significant meaning to Bennetts work and plays an important role in his investigation of issues and ideas related to identity, understanding and perception. It is open to self revelation, self redemption and a myriad of rich images of self that can be built upon. In the third panel of Bennetts triptych, Empire, a Roman triumphal arch frames a stately figure. Gordon BENNETT "Possession Island" (1991) Conceptual Painting Art Painting Contemporary Australian Artists Neo Expressionism Expressionist Art Collage Cultural Studies Indigenous Education Gordon BENNETT "Notes to Basquiat (The coming of the light)" (2001) Aboriginal Painting Drawing Prints Drawings Image Sheet Foley Present Day Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums; Daniel Boyd, We Call Them . Calverts image becomes one of the layers of the painting. If God cannot be contained, can humanity be contained by stereotypes and labels? For many Aboriginal Australians, these celebrations were instead received as a period of mourning and a time to remember the devastating consequences of colonisation on Aboriginal people. At art college Bennett discovered how Australian identity was built on a subjective writing of history. Are these qualities perceived as positive? He tried a career as an actuarial clerk, attending Hawthorn College after Balwyn State School. List some of your own qualities and attributes. Typical of Bennetts early work, the painting appropriates an existing picture, in this case an historical painting, and transforms the content with carefully considered signs of Aboriginal identity. While personal experience has had a significant influence on Gordon Bennetts art practice, the autobiographical aspects of his work are framed by bigger ideas and questions that have relevance and significance beyond Bennetts own experience. Gordon Bennett 1, Bennetts Aboriginal heritage came through his mother. The absence of the Aboriginal servant and the scuttling footprints in Possession Island No 2 suggest the physical dispossession that was to follow once the British claimed ownership of the land. Research other artists who use appropriation and select an artist whose work interests you. Western art has a long tradition of creating an illusion of three- dimensional space on a flat surface. 'Gordon Bennett!' - meaning and origin. - Phrasefinder There was still no space for me to simply be. Bennetts use of the grid in these and other artworks suggests questions and ideas. 1. 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. Discuss in relation to selected artworks by Bennett that you believe reveal questions and complexities, rather than answers and simplicities. He found this liberating. 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. He used his self as the vehicle to do so. Include in your discussion reference to Bennetts appropriation of The nine shots 1985 by Imants Tillers. Van Goghs original bedroom evokes a feeling of peace and harmony. While the conceptual framework underpinning Bennetts art remained remarkably consistent, his art practice was characterised by some dramatic stylistic shifts over twenty years. Gordon Bennett 1, For an artist whose practice was concerned with how labels and systems define and confine knowledge and perception, labels and categorisations such as aboriginal artist, or urban aboriginal artist that were often applied to his work through exhibitions, books and other commentaries presented many practical as well as philosophical issues, I am very aware of the boundaries of critical containment within the parameters of Urban Aboriginal Art, and have so far worked within these boundaries to try and broaden, extend and subvert them. Mondrian aspired to create a form of pure abstract art based on the grid and a controlled use of art elements, including primary colours. Jenna Gribbon, Luncheon on the grass, a recurring dream, 2020. Australia for His Majesty King George III. SOLD FEB 21, 2023. Australian artist Gordon Bennett passed away on June 3, 2014, from natural causes at the age of 58. Gordon Bennett | World War II Database - WW2DB Remembering Gordon Bennett, the man who saved Christmas Island Kelly Gellatly 1. Gordon Bennett explores these ideas in Self portrait: Interior/ Exterior , 1992. The grid and perspective lines are another recurring symbol in Bennetts work. How ideas might be encountered from different places and events interest him. Bennett adopted this alter ego to liberate himself from the preconceptions that were often associated with his Aboriginal heritage and his identity and reputation as the artist Gordon Bennett. But in Bennetts painting disparate diagrams, symbols and images disrupt the illusion, presenting the landscape as a site where many ideas and viewpoints compete.