Bennetts distinctive visual language repositions the subject of the work, claiming the Aboriginal perspective as central to the historical moment of the original painting. Gouged into the skin like a tattoo, these markings will never heal or fade away. I am purposely not defining him only as Aboriginal because he himself does not want to be defined only as such. The Constitution is being rethought with respect to Indigenous Australians, and treaty-making is on the agenda yet the Uluru Statement from the Heart was roundly ignored by the Federal Government. Bennetts final year at art college in 1988 coincided with the Bicentenary of European settlement of Australia. 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. Bennett confronts and questions the appropriateness of this borrowing. Nearby homes similar to 2719 NE 21st Ter have recently sold between $824K to $1M at an average of $565 per square foot. I decided that I would attempt to create a space by adopting a strategy of intervention and disturbance in the field of representation through my art. In a letter written to Basquiat after his death, Bennett writes: To some, writing a letter to a person post humously may seem tacky and an attempt to gain some kind of attention, even steal your crown. 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. Gordon Bennett - Portrait and a Wet Dream (Historicism) (1993-95) - A "I want a future that lives up to my past": the words from David McDiarmid's iconic poster reverberate now, as we ponder the past year and think ah. 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. The word DISPERSE was used by the colonisers to represent the killing of Aboriginal people. For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au for details. Most Australians were shocked and scandalised that public money was spent on something they neither appreciated nor understood. In Interior (Abstract eye), 1991 a diagrammatic grid overlays an image depicting a group of Aboriginal people in the landscape, seemingly appropriated from a social studies text. The title of the work itself is unsettling. Bennett simultaneously obscures and draws attention to the Aboriginal man standing next to Cook, overlaying an abstract geometric shape which recalls constructivist art and the Aboriginal flag. The powerful image/word I AM, while central, is accompanied by statements of opposite, I am light I am dark. It is a monument that also unintentionally signals the subsequent dispossession of Aboriginal people from their homeland. With eyes closed, these heads appear as blind, mute and lifeless witnesses to the surrounding conflict and struggle. Felicity Allen, Gordon Bennett interviewed by Felicity Allen in the. It demonstrates Bennetts understanding of the power of this image. But the oppressive and restrictive laws that governed the lives of Aboriginal people in Australia until the late 1960s continued to impose on her life. For Mondrian the grid became the essence of all forms. His sudden death came just one week after the opening of the 8th Berlin Biennale, where a series of Bennett's never-before exhibited drawings from the early 1990s are currently on view. Bennett used it to question notions of self. 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. Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. Gordon Bennett 2. Clear visual divisions are created with distinct black areas as well as large white areas. Bennett depicts self as a black empty vessel, coffin- like with lash markings almost disguised by a thick layer of black paint. 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. Bennett presents each image with a single word, written in capitals, that boldly asserts a new meaning for them. An understanding of self in the context of family is not enough. Create an illustrated and annotated timeline of the history of Australia since settlement. The installation is filled with images of his family and Constructivist-style drawings made by the artist. Explain. But this approach is central to the way many people describe and analyse his work. Gordon Bennett's "Outsider" is a highly emotive piece that conveys various ideas through appropriate symbolism. Theosophy means god wisdom, the belief that everything living or dead was put together from basic blocks that lead towards consciousness. New perspectives on familiar images and stories are presented. She looms large over the landscape in Requiem, as she does in the post- contact history of the nation as a symbol of the devastating impact that colonisation had on Indigenous people and culture. Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums The Estate of Gordon Bennett The Politics of Art - Melbourne Law School That's probably why he is hardly a household name, despite the cognoscenti referring to him as a powerfully influential figure in contemporary art. John Citizen was an abstraction of the Australian Mr Average, the Australian everyman. Some supporters applauded his escape but his claim that he left to pass on his knowledge about how to fight the Japanese - given his lack of success . Bennetts pictures leave us with questions rather than answers, with complexities rather than simplicities as if the origins of truth, identity and ideology are in metaphors and signs rather than in things, and hence are layered and relative Ian McLean 1. Gordon Bennett - Sutton Gallery These binary opposites insider/outsider, black/white, primitive/civilised have had a powerful influence on perceptions of European and Indigenous people and culture. Gordon Bennett 3, Bennett married in 1977. Even when the starting point for a work is an emotive one, I believe I conceptually examine the ideas behind the emotion and extrapolate from there Gordon Bennett1. 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? Theyre buried, and this is a way of bringing them back into memory, but remembered in a different way from the way that I was taught, looking at them from a different angle and looking at how they work, where they came from initially, and how these images still support contemporary stereotypes, etc. They are strategically and prominently placed at the centre top of each panel, each radiating an aura of light created by white dots. Such accolades and critical recognition are keenly sought by many artists. Nov 26, 2012 - The paintings of Gordon Bennett are loaded with graphic detail. Gordon Bennett 3. I had never thought to question those narratives and I certainly had never been taught at school to question them only to believe them. These geometric forms also refer to the early 20th-century abstract artist Kazimir Malevich. In Unassailable heroes (Sweet Damper) Famous since Captain Cook, 1996 the motifs and symbols suggest issues and questions related to history and representation that concern Bennett. 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. 2015 exhibition program - Announcements - e-flux What evidence can you see in this self-portrait of Bennett linking issues of personal identity with broader issues related to history and culture? 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. Gordon Bennett | Number Nine (2008) | Artsy cat. Discuss with reference to examples in at least two works by Bennett. For example, at the time Gordon was born she still had to carry her official exemption certificate with her, and she lived in fear of her son being taken from her . From the beginning of his career, John Citizen had had a complex relationship with Gordon Bennett. A gush of blood red paint shoots into the sky from his body. Mondrian, a Dutch De Stijl artist and a Theosophist, used art to search empirical truths and their source. Possession Island 1991 was recently purchased by the Historic Houses Trust of NSW. 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. These act as disturbances. Preston envisioned the creation of an Australian aesthetic. This pastiche of style and image is like a D J (Disc Jockey) sampling and remixing different styles of music to create new expressions. Gordon Bennett is an Australian artist of Aboriginal descent. Since his first major solo exhibition in 1989 his work has been at the forefront of contemporary Australian art and has been recognised internationally for its innovative and critical engagement with ideas and issues of ongoing relevance to contemporary culture. Their confidence was rewarded when Possession Island 1991, a triptych in which each panel measured 162 x 130 cm, sold for $384,000. In Bennetts painting the bedroom becomes the site of violent conflict that involves complex and intersecting personal and cultural histories. As one of the dispossessed within this biased history, he claims that his only tool to combat this bias was the art of mimicry. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas in two parts. In September 2017, Bennett's 1991 Possession Island was unveiled at London's Tate Modern. In European tradition these are seen as a means of mapping and defining space. Mondrian cages the figures, Preston objectifies the figures; Bennett accommodates both to grasp the intangible and dissect these limited interpretations and stereotypes. We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung People as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the NGV is built. James Gordon Bennett Quotes - BrainyQuote American - Editor May 10, 1841 - May 14, 1918 I have made mistakes but I have never made the mistake of claiming that I have never made one. He tried a career as an actuarial clerk, attending Hawthorn College after Balwyn State School. Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) is one of Australia's most important contemporary artists, and his works have received increasing critical acclaim over the past years - culminating with his retrospective exhibition at the QAGOMA in Brisbane, 'Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett'. In Outsider the energy and intensity associated with van Goghs expressive brushstrokes and brilliant colour contrasts are powerfully explosive . Discuss with reference to selected artworks by Gordon Bennett. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. 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 The Notes to Basquiat series,which Bennett commenced in 1998, marked a significant new direction in his art in relation to working with the style of another artist. While these may indicate the way maps are constructed to find different locations, they also represent the first letter of racial slurs. This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. Cook, l'escroc du Pacifique - CASOAR Arts et Anthropologie de l'Ocanie These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. Bennett was concerned that his identity and work was seen as coming from a narrow framework. 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. Gordon Bennett 1. Are these qualities perceived as positive? The focus on reason, scientific learning and progress that characterised the Enlightenment (suggested by the measuring marks on the torch) lead to many significant discoveries and new ways of understanding the world. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island #2, 1991. He lived and worked in Brisbane. The facial features reflected in the mirror are blurred and distorted by roughly painted words typical racist remarks about Aboriginal people. 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. Strange to think of Gordon Bennett as an almost classical figure in contemporary Australian art. 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. The simplicity of I AM suggests a universality of thought. Australian politics is fraught yet the Australian public is disengaged. Egyptian painting or relief sculpture, Chinese scroll paintings, Aboriginal painting of the Western Desert. Different members of the class could be assigned different cultural traditions to research and then prepare an illustrated presentation for the class. These paintings reflect Bennetts belief that after the Notes to Basquiat series of 2003, I had gone as far I could with the postcolonial project I was working through1. Gordon Bennett | MCA Australia 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. From a distance the figure resembles a sculpture of a heroic Classical figure. . There is strong symbolism associated with the placement of the figure beneath the Roman triumphal arch. Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums Underlying Bennetts admiration for Basquiat was the need to re- contextualise the issues that he had explored throughout his career as an artist. Alumni and Giving - The Politics of Art Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) voraciously consumed art history, current affairs, rap music and fiction, and processed it all into an unflinching critique of how identities are constituted and how history shapes individual and shared cultural conditions. Collect a range of images (both art and media sources) that depict characters that are perceived or presented as typically Australian. In your discussion consider meanings and ideas associated with, Compare your interpretation and analysis with others related to this artwork (this could be an interpretation by someone else in your class, or in a commentary on the work in gallery, book, catalogue etc. He is not disturbed by slashes of paint, but painted carefully and outlined by the precise grid behind him. scale, format), Ian McLean Gordon Bennetts existentialism in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, Roseville East, 1996, p. 69, Ian McLean Gordon Bennetts existentialism, p. 71. One hand holds a torch a symbol of Enlightenment values that is also seen in The Statue of Liberty in New York that sheds light on darkness. 3233, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 33, Gordon Bennett & Chris McAuliffe, Interview with Gordon Bennett in Rex Bulter (Ed.) Dots have been an important element in many of Bennetts paintings as a powerful signifier of Aboriginal art, for example Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire. Pioneering Australian Artist Gordon Bennett Dies at 58 The viewer is made to step back and allow the eyes to form the images. She was one of the first Australian artists to recognise the spiritual significance of Aboriginal art and the land. 27 oct. 2018 - Dcouvrez le tableau "GORDON BENNETT" de Bibishams sur Pinterest. The viewer does not confront the artist, but self. Using a painting technique, create a finished artwork based on one or some of these experiments. 2, I cant remember exactly when it dawned on me that I had an Aboriginal heritage, I generally say it was around age eleven, but this was my age when my family returned to Queensland where Aboriginal people were far more visible. Explore. You might consider, scale, materials and techniques, perceptual effects. In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. How does Bennetts use of appropriation reflect an interest in some of the moral and ethical issues associated with this practice. Sutton Gallery. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007 Possession Island (Abstraction), Gordon Bennett, 1991, Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas. These racist terms confront an Aboriginal figure represented as a jack-in-the-box, as he is violently jerked from the box that contains him. This culminated in the Notes to Basquiat series in 2003. . 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. Immersed within a White European culture, he was unaware of his Aboriginality until his early teens. His use of I AM emphasises this. This rich interplay of words and images raises many questions. These are paintings about painting. Create an artwork in a medium of your choice that highlights how the meanings, values and ideas associated with these binary opposites influence perception and understanding. Examine a range of Bennetts artworks and their titles and discuss how the titles might provide a useful starting point for analysing and interpreting the images. The graphic detail in these images, including mutilated, tortured bodies, continue to confront viewers today with the realities of human behaviour and suffering in war. His art attempts to depict the complexity of both cultural perspectives. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? Bennett used 9/11 and its global impact three months after the event as the stage for his discourse on cultural identity. How Enlightenment Thinkers Framed the Original 'Cancel Culture' as Gordon Bennett 1. 148339 AK Gordon-Bennett-Rennen 1904 Cup Motorsport Usingen Weilburg Limburg. Learn How rich is He in this year and how He spends money? There are a number of reasons why I began painting abstract paintings that focused on overt visual phenomena, as opposed to explicit visual content. However, Bennetts ongoing investigation into questions of identity, perception and knowledge, has involved a range of subjects drawn from both history and contemporary culture, and both national and international contexts. 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. James Gordon Bennett, Sr., a Scottish immigrant, founded the New York Herald in 1835, building the paper from the ground up. The Fabulously Eccentric Life of James Gordon Bennett, Jr. 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. Ontological questions as to what essentially is architecture, painting, sculpture, drawing, and print elicited numerous answers in the early modern period, due in part to experimentation and development in technical, formal, and discursive practices during the Middle Ages. What aspects of Bennetts works might viewers focus on as emotional?