In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. Both artists have an affinity with Jazz, Rap and Hip Hop music. Sell with Artsy Artist Series Portraits of Artists and Sculptors 113 available Other aspects of the image, including the flat, stylised shapes of the head, reflect connections to both Western abstract art and Indigenous art traditions. However, he offers more than one interpretation of the grids use, which is indicated by the sampling of works by Australian artist Margaret Preston . The critical and aesthetic strategies of postmodernism have had significant impact on the development of his art practice. 1. 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. Bennett investigates the way stereotypes are constructed by exploring words and images in opposites. The coming of the light refers ironically to a term used by Torres Strait Islanders to describe the arrival of the missionaries who brought Christianity to the Islands in 1871. a moment of possession; the place where he came ashore and allegedly claimed . James Gordon Bennett 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. These signs can also be read as evidence that disputes the claim that Australia was discovered terra nullius or nobodys land. Cooee Art Auctions works with artists bi-annually across two separate departments - Indigenous Fine Art and Modern & Contemporary Fine Art. Pollock was influenced by Navaho sand paintings, which were created on the ground. Our understanding of the meanings associated with visual signs is linked to cultural codes, conventions and experience. Pinterest. Bennett was interested in the way language and images construct identity and history, and the way this language controls and creates meaning. He drew on and sampled from many artists and traditions to create a new language and a new way of reading these images. Fri. 10-9, Sat. Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 27, Identities come from somewhere, have histories, and like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation. At the heart of the artwork of Gordon Bennett is a journey to find that self amidst the cultural and historical inequities created by European settlement in Australia. From 2003 Bennett worked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings that mark another significant shift in his practice. The viewer does not confront the artist, but self. Throughout his career Bennett has used many different strategies to engage the viewer in his work. The pair of outstretched arms and the diagrammatic outline of a cross- like form in the central panel of Triptych: Requieum, Of grandeur, Empire, 1989 alludes to the figure of Christ crucified on the cross, a common subject in Christian art. Mondrian cages the figures, Preston objectifies the figures; Bennett accommodates both to grasp the intangible and dissect these limited interpretations and stereotypes. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, this was a time to mourn the devastating consequences of 200 years of colonisation. The Whitlam Government abolished the last remnants of the White Australia policy, established diplomatic relations with China and advocated Aboriginal land rights, to name just a few of these changes. Like many of his own and earlier generations, Bennetts understanding of the nations history was partly shaped by the sort of images commonly found in history books. Bennett has often used dots in his artworks as part of his investigation of issues of identity, and history. The inclusion of Pollock helps build these cross- connections. Identity is fixed and self is understood in the context of words such as Abo, Boong, Coon and Darkie . Comparisons between Basquiat and Bennett often focus on the artists similar backgrounds and experiences. In September 2017, Bennett's 1991 Possession Island was unveiled at London's Tate Modern. Nearby Recently Sold Homes. Samuel Calverts engraving, Captain Cook taking possession of the Australian continent on behalf of the British Crown AD 1770, became the starting point for Bennetts exploration. In the past Quadroon, was a socially acceptable term used to label Indigenous people as a way of establishing genetic heredity. Image credit: Gordon Bennett - Possession Island (1991). 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. Finally, Ive never been one to make art about art before. * February 4, 2015 The Institute of Modern Art announces its 2015 exhibition program Institute of Modern Art 420 Brunswick Street Fortitude Valley Brisbane QLD 4006 Australia T +61 (0) 7 3252 5750 ima [ at ] ima.org.au www.ima.org.au 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. Gebraucht | Gewerblich. I have tried to avoid any simplistic critical containment or stylistic categorisation as an Aboriginal artist producing Aboriginal art by consistently changing stylistic directions and by producing work that does not sit easily in the confines of Aboriginal art collections or definitions. For example, Aboriginal deaths in custody was recognised as a significant issue. Gordon Bennett arrived on Christmas Island in 1979 to take a post as leader of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. Image credit: Gordon Bennett - Possession Island (1991). Based on your understanding of Bennetts motivations for the abstract paintings, outlined in the quote in the text, suggest what may have interested Bennett about the work of these artists. You have to understand my position of having no designs or images or stories on which to draw to assert my Aboriginality. How does Bennetts use of appropriation reflect an interest in some of the moral and ethical issues associated with this practice. A long-distance hot-air balloon race (The International Gordon Bennett balloon race), which still continues, was inaugurated by him in 1906. Bennetts earliest works, including The coming of the light, 1987, reflect a raw and expressive style. Sutton Gallery. But, in the late 1990s, some residents . Kelly Gellatly 3. ), Heide Museum of Modern Art , Melbourne, 2004 pp. Bennetts use of dots highlights the way Aboriginal cultural identity continues to be defined and confined by Western ideas of Aboriginality. 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. Physically, the kitsch Aboriginal motifs copied from Preston are trapped. The 'cancel culture' debate winds me up. Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? Much of Bennetts work has been concerned with an interrogation of Australias colonial past and postcolonial present, including issues associated with the dominant role that white, western culture has played in constructing the social and cultural landscape of the nation. Most Australians were shocked and scandalised that public money was spent on something they neither appreciated nor understood. I needed to change direction at least for a while. 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. Bennett's 'unfinished business' was to encourage a great sensitivity and action in terms of these conditions," said Ms Stanhope. These qualities expose some of the complications that arise from understandings built on binary opposites. 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. Mondrian, a Dutch De Stijl artist and a Theosophist, used art to search empirical truths and their source. It is reproduced in flat, bold and black line work. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. EUR 99,99. dresden-de (52.329) 100%. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 182 x 182 cm. The grotesque also interested Bennett as a means of disrupting conventional ways of seeing and understanding. 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. Possession Island No 2 1991 is a painting that shows the British explorer Captain James Cook and other compatriots hoisting the Union flag to claim the eastern coast of Australia for the British Crown in 1770. 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. His father, born in Scotland in 1795, emigrated to the US to become a journalist and subsequently founded the 'New York Herald' in 1835. 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. 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. For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au for details. The timeline could be presented in hardcopy for display in the classroom, or as an ICT project incorporating images and audio. The grand Romantic landscapes of Western art were intended to inspire the viewer with their dramatic beauty and effects of illusion. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name. So, painting in an overtly abstract manner was a way to go silent on the issues involved and yet still keep painting. 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. For Bennett, however, success triggered concerns related to the links drawn between his identity as an Indigenous person, his subject matter and the reception of his work. 40 41. The imagery in this painting focuses on binary opposites, including the Aboriginal figure and various symbols of European and Indigenous art and culture . This is evident in many of his works, including Outsider. 3233, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 33, Gordon Bennett & Chris McAuliffe, Interview with Gordon Bennett in Rex Bulter (Ed.) 3 Beds. As a self- portrait, the artist seems to be present everywhere within the installation but is in fact nowhere. 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. The Stripe series of abstract paintings represents a kind of freedom for me as an artist. His work also includes performance art, video, photography and printmaking. . You might consider, scale, materials and techniques, perceptual effects. The figure is dressed in tattered western clothing. Often the basic alphabet letters ABC also appear with Bennetts perspective diagrams, highlighting the learned and culturally specific nature of the alphabet and linear perspective. 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. Gordon Bennett an Australian Aboriginal artist demonstrates this theory through his work. European history has stipulated that being Australian has required anyone that does not fit into such a Eurocentric category is different, other and therefore unworthy. Such imagery has often been used by artists to unsettle the viewer and present new perspectives on familiar subjects. Do you agree? "Gordon Bennett!" The first panel of Bennetts triptych, Requiem, depicts Trugannini (c. 1812 1876), a Palawa woman from Tasmania. 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. Gordon Bennett This world is not my home 1988 Not Currently on Display Artwork Artist As a teenager, Gordon Bennett became aware of his Indigenous heritage, and art became the tool through which he could examine his identity as an Australian of both Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. Calverts image becomes one of the layers of the painting. Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. Do you agree? . The mirror at the bottom left-hand corner of the painting represents Bennetts own shaving mirror. 3 Baths. 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, Bennetts Aboriginal heritage came through his mother. The triptych form of painting is most commonly associated with the altarpiece paintings made for Christian churches. 148339 AK Gordon-Bennett-Rennen 1904 Cup Motorsport Usingen Weilburg Limburg. 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. From his father, a Scottish . 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. He used familiar and recognisable images that are part of an Australian consciousness to explore and question the meaning of these images. 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. It is also a direct reference to biblical stories in the Hebrew Scriptures. Bennett as a cultural outsider of both his Aboriginal and AngloCeltic heritage does not assume a simplistic interpretation of identity. He serves as a counterpoint to Gordon Bennetts Other, and yet we are the one and the same. Gordon Bennett 1. Bennetts recent abstract paintings reflect links to a range of artists including Australians Robert McPherson, Emily Kam Kngwarray and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, and International artist Frank Stella. Gordon Bennett 1. The I am from Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys) is replaced with We all are. It is a monument that also unintentionally signals the subsequent dispossession of Aboriginal people from their homeland. 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. 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. 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. I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas; two parts, 162 x 260cm (overall). Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings $45.00 Quantity Edited by Angela Goddard and Tim Riley Walsh A co-publication from Power Publications and Griffith University Art Museum Paperback with dust jacket RRP $45.00 AUD ISBN 978--909952-01-3 66 images, including colour plates 216 pp 297 x 210 mm 890 gms . The dynamic juxtaposition of images, sound and other effects made possible by video, introduced new dimensions to Bennetts investigation of issues and ideas related to identity, history and language. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. They communicated important Christian stories to the congregation. are they representative of different cultural identities)? Jenna Gribbon, April studio, parting glance, 2021. Bennett continued to work in new ways with materials, techniques and images throughout his career. In European tradition these are seen as a means of mapping and defining space. Gordon Bennett, The Manifestoe, Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett. In Malevichs work the black square is seen as having a strong and even spiritual presence.
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