Bennett was aware of the role binary opposites, such as self/other, play in constructing personal and cultural identity. Gordon Bennett 1. It acts as a question with many possibilities and answers. How does this work compare with conventional self-portraits? The Classical style and pose of the figure in the panel Empire, and the draped animal skins and weapons, reflect a stereotype of the noble savage that was widely influential in how people viewed Indigenous people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This event was re-enacted in many pageants and dramatisations during Australias Bicentenary in 1988, as a way of celebrating 200 years of Australian history. Gordon Bennett an Australian Aboriginal artist demonstrates this theory through his work. This image is based on a photograph by JW Lindt (1845 1926). He acknowledged that much of his work was autobiographical, but he emphasises that there was conceptual distance involved in his art making . The final panel in the sequence of six images in Untitled is a black square. 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. People tend to focus on the emotional aspect rather than the conceptual when interpreting my work, and that bothers me. On each corner of the grid are the letters A B C D . Born in Monto, Queensland, Bennett was a significant figure in contemporary Indigenous Australian art . 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. 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. Ft. 2707 Coral Shores Dr, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. 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. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007 This imagery alludes to the violent suppression of Indigenous people and culture in the nations history that was thrown into focus by the Bicentenary celebrations. Bennetts earliest works, including The coming of the light, 1987, reflect a raw and expressive style. Other significant works: Gordon Bennett, Possession Island; Glenn Brown, The Day The World Turned Auerbach; Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of the Living; Glenn Ligon, Notes on the Margin of the Black Book; Gabriel Orozco, Crazy Tourist; Cornelia Parker, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View The representation of Aborigines has been reduced to caricature. List some of your own qualities and attributes. 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. 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. He used familiar and recognisable images that are part of an Australian consciousness to explore and question the meaning of these images. In Interior (Tribal rug), 2007 the sleek modern design of the furniture is complemented by a Margaret Preston inspired tribal rug and an abstract painting by Gordon Bennett. Bennett worked in a range of art forms and with a variety of media and techniques. 2,038 Sq. Bennett was interested in the way language and images construct identity and history, and the way this language controls and creates meaning. Bennett intentionally fuses this iconic style of Western painting with the famous Aboriginal white dot painting of the Western Desert, reproducing the mix in Possession Island. Why do artists such as Gordon Bennett and Tracey Moffatt (b.1960) systematically decline to participate in exhibitions of Aboriginal art? John Citizen had his first exhibition in 1995 at Sutton Gallery, Melbourne 2 As an alternative artistic identity, John Citizen not only alerts us to how artistic identity is constructed, it gave Bennett great freedom to be someone other than Gordon Bennett. He had identified with the experience of the fair complexioned, African-American conceptual artist Adrian Piper, who wrote: Blacks like me are unwilling observers of the forms racism takes when racists believe there are no blacks present. Picassos sizable oeuvre grew to include over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures,ceramics, theater sets, and costume designs. Clear visual divisions are created with distinct black areas as well as large white areas. On closer inspection we see it is an image of an Aboriginal man. Why might such an organisation purchase this painting? Choose a selfportrait by Gordon Bennett that interests you. 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. Once again the letters A B C D feature as a potent symbol and complete the grid. It was no accident that Bennett used this event to question the way history is written and interpreted. 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. possession island 25 Artworks: 1991-95 | Frieze Gordon Bennett Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth, Family This was soon replaced by a cooler, more conceptual approach. Mondrian aspired to create a form of pure abstract art based on the grid and a controlled use of art elements, including primary colours. See more ideas about artist, art, straight photography. Nearby Recently Sold Homes. It was upon entering the workforce that I really learnt how low the general opinion of Aboriginal people was. More broadly, it recalls the lives of many young Aboriginal women who followed a similar destiny. . There was always some sense of social engagement. all the education and socialization upon which my identity and self worth as a person, indeed my sense of Australianness, and that of my peers, had as its foundation the narratives of colonialism. At auction, a number of Picassos paintings have sold for more than $100 million. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. 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. Bennett as a cultural outsider of both his Aboriginal and AngloCeltic heritage does not assume a simplistic interpretation of identity. These joint acquisitions by MCA and Tate include two large video installations, one by Susan Norrie (Transit 2011) and another by Vernon Ah Kee (tall man 2010), two paintings by Gordon Bennett (Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 and Number Nine 2008) and an artist book by Judy Watson consisting of sixteen etchings with chine coll (a . Bennett's 'unfinished business' was to encourage a great sensitivity and action in terms of these conditions," said Ms Stanhope. What does this comment suggest to you about the purpose of Bennetts questioning of history? Bennetts use of the grid in these and other artworks suggests questions and ideas. From early in his career he was inspired by theories and ideas associated with postmodernism. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? 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. 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. Include a selection of relevant artworks by Gordon Bennett to illustrate your timeline. It was no accident that Bennett used Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. Here he exposes the truth of colonial occupation it was a bloody conquest. While the conceptual framework underpinning Bennetts art remained remarkably consistent, his art practice was characterised by some dramatic stylistic shifts over twenty years. He painted his most famous work, Guernica (1937), in response to the Spanish Civil War; the totemic grisaille canvas remains a definitive work of anti-war art. What key themes and ideas are explored in the book/film? Symbols such as these highlight his awareness and use of visual images, forms and elements as signs. In just three generations, that heritage has been lost to me. Bennett establishes him as the focal point. He states: The traditionalist studies of Anthropology and Ethnography have thus tended to reinforce popular romantic beliefs of an authentic Aboriginality associated with the Dreaming and images of primitive desert people, thereby supporting the popular judgment that only remote fullbloods are real Aborigines. Landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay 1770 by E. Phillips Fox, for example, depicts Captain James Cook ceremoniously coming ashore at Botany Bay to claim the land for Britain. Since 1992 Bennett was involved in an ongoing non-performance by refusing to participate in public lecture programs in Australia. The arms that extend in opposite directions across the two panels of the painting represent different perspectives on the impact of the Enlightenment. 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 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. In Untitled, 1989 Bennett works with a selection of images associated with the familiar story of the discovery and settlement of Australia. In Calverts etching, an Aboriginal man holds a drinks tray. The central figure is based on a monoprint made from the artists body. Gordon Bennett's "Outsider" is a highly emotive piece that conveys various ideas through appropriate symbolism. From a distance the figure resembles a sculpture of a heroic Classical figure. Research other artists who use appropriation and select an artist whose work interests you. Citizens more recent work includes a series of interiors inspired by the decorator and home magazines that circulate widely in popular culture. 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. Gordon Bennett, an Australian Aboriginal artist, demonstrates this theory through his work. As the foundation of a system of representation, perspective produces an illusion of depth on an essentially flat two dimensional surface by the use of invisible lines that converge to a vanishing point. Gordon Bennett 3, Bennett married in 1977. An Anthology of writings on Australian Art in the 1980s & 1990s, IMA Publishing, 2004, p. 273, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett Craftsman House, 1996, p. 58, Kelly Gellatly, Citizen in the making, p.18, Kelly Gellatly, Citizen in the making, p. 17, John Citizen artist profile, Sutton Gallery, Melbourne http://www.suttongallery.com.au/artists/artistprofile.php?id=39 accessed 29/11/07, Conversation Bill Wright talks to Gordon Bennett, in Kelly Gellatly with contributions by Bill Wright, Justin Clemens and Jane Devery, Gordon Bennett (exhib. Art can encourage people to rethink personal beliefs and positions. 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 . Media Releases - MCA, Qantas and Tate announce first series of These geometric forms also refer to the early 20th-century abstract artist Kazimir Malevich. Gordon Bennett is an Australian artist of Aboriginal descent. . History | World Air Sports Federation Other aspects of the image, including the flat, stylised shapes of the head, reflect connections to both Western abstract art and Indigenous art traditions. The jack- in- the box is surrounded by symbols, including the grid- like buildings and alphabet blocks, of the knowledge, systems and structures that represent an enlightened, civilised society. Articles - JSTOR The viewer is made to step back and allow the eyes to form the images. Gordon Bennett - Sutton Gallery The grand Romantic landscapes of Western art were intended to inspire the viewer with their dramatic beauty and effects of illusion. He used strategies such as deconstruction and appropriation to present audiences with new ways of viewing and understanding the images and narratives that have shaped the nations history and culture. In the Christian tradition light is associated with goodness and righteousness while darkness is associated with evil. What aspects of Bennetts works might viewers focus on as emotional? 2 February 2021. 2719 NE 21st Ter, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33306 - Redfin Research the representation of three dimensional space in selected artforms of several different cultures (ie. Include reference to specific examples in your discussion. Bloody handprints are stamped across the walls. The Fabulously Eccentric Life of James Gordon Bennett, Jr. He drew on and sampled from many artists and traditions to create a new language and a new way of reading these images. 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. Outsider depicts, a decapitated Aboriginal figure standing over Vincent van Goghs bed, with red paint streaming skywards to join with the vortex of Vincents starry night. EUR 99,99. dresden-de (52.329) 100%. Would you include work by Gordon Bennett in a text book on Australian history.