Other aspects of the image, including the flat, stylised shapes of the head, reflect connections to both Western abstract art and Indigenous art traditions. Inspired by African and Iberian art, he also contributed to the rise of Surrealism and Expressionism. 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 Watch. Literally opening up this black skin of paint are the words cut me. 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. Discuss with reference to a selection of at least three works, clearly identifying stylistic shifts, and evidence of conceptual unity. Gordon Bennett, an Australian Aboriginal artist, demonstrates this theory through his work. 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 was always some sense of social engagement. . Gordon Bennett rapidly established himself in the Australian art world. I found people were always confusing me as a person with the content of my work. Discuss with reference to examples in at least two works by Bennett. The Politics of Art. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall . Gordon Bennett | Australian art, Indigenous art, Australian artists The artist Gordon Bennett led a reclusive life. Gordon Bennett 1. 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. Articles - JSTOR He was in a sense all things to all people. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 oil and acrylic on canvas 182 x 182cm Collection: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Tate, purchased jointly with funds provided by the Qantas Foundation, 2016 The Estate of Gordon Bennett 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. Egyptian painting or relief sculpture, Chinese scroll paintings, Aboriginal painting of the Western Desert. Gordon Bennett - Portrait and a Wet Dream (Historicism) (1993-95) - A Bennett achieved critical success early in his career. However the hand in the opposite panel controls and threatens the Aboriginal figure represented as a jack- in- the- box. 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. Bennetts final year at art college in 1988 coincided with the Bicentenary of European settlement of Australia. Gordon Bennett is an Australian artist of Aboriginal descent. 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. He described his upbringing as overwhelmingly Euro-Australian, with never a word spoken about my Aboriginal heritage. Opens in a new window or tab. James Gordon Bennett Calverts image becomes one of the layers of the painting. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. Cooee Art Auctions works with artists bi-annually across two separate departments - Indigenous Fine Art and Modern & Contemporary Fine Art. are they representative of different cultural identities)? They became a potent symbol of the celebrations. The distorted and exaggerated features of the form incorporate qualities that appear animal and human, male and female. A gush of blood red paint shoots into the sky from his body. Australia for His Majesty King George III. What strategies have been used to communicate and explore these themes and ideas in the book/film? 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. It is said that as a concession to Ireland ( because racing was illegal on British public roads) the British adopted shamrock green as their racing colour. 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. The grotesque also interested Bennett as a means of disrupting conventional ways of seeing and understanding. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. This pastiche of style and image is like a D J (Disc Jockey) sampling and remixing different styles of music to create new expressions. Particularly when academics claim that they are afraid of expressing their 'true' findings for fear of losing their careers. 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. Bennett not only used Basquiat images, but begins to paint in his style. In Malevichs work the black square is seen as having a strong and even spiritual presence. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. The timeline could be presented in hardcopy for display in the classroom, or as an ICT project incorporating images and audio. These visual representations of history present the colonisers as powerful figures and as the bearers of learning and civilisation in a land of primitive people who have no obvious learning or culture. Why? Gewerblich. The works I have produced are notes, nothing more, to you and your work Gordon Bennett 1. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). It has been designed for teachers and students to instigate discussion and investigation, and includes learning activities relevant to history and visual arts that can be adapted to different levels. Gordon Bennett 3. 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. In the Christian tradition light is associated with goodness and righteousness while darkness is associated with evil. What typically Australian qualities are associated with these characters? Bennett attempts to destroy the stereotypes to question notions of 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. It is reproduced in flat, bold and black line work. That is not my intention, I have my own experiences of being crowned in Australia, as an Urban Aboriginal artist underscored as that title is by racism and primitivism and I do not wear it well. Australian artist Gordon Bennett passed away on June 3, 2014, from natural causes at the age of 58. He is not disturbed by slashes of paint, but painted carefully and outlined by the precise grid behind him. Physically, the kitsch Aboriginal motifs copied from Preston are trapped. During 199495 at summer school Bennett learnt to make digital videos on an Apple PowerMac computer. Bennett's art engages with historical and contemporary questions of cultural and personal identity, with a specific focus on Australia's colonial past and its postcolonial present. The Other is clearly marked out as not only different but by necessity inferior. These images, forever forged in our minds, are boldly depicted in Basquiats graffiti- like style. In Outsider the energy and intensity associated with van Goghs expressive brushstrokes and brilliant colour contrasts are powerfully explosive . Research the representation of three dimensional space in selected artforms of several different cultures (ie. In a conceptual sense I was liberated from the binary prison of self and other; the wall had disintegrated but where was I? 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. Such images have defined the nations settlement history for many generations of Australians. Explore. 2 All that he had understood about himself and taken for granted as an Australian had ruptured. Six years after his death at the age of 58, his 'Unfinished Business: The art of Gordon Bennett' at QAGOMA From his father, a Scottish . Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums; Daniel Boyd, We Call Them . 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. The central figure is based on a monoprint made from the artists body. How does Bennetts use of appropriation reflect an interest in some of the moral and ethical issues associated with this practice. GORDON BENNETT SOLO IN QUEENSLAND at News Aboriginal Art Directory A long-distance hot-air balloon race (The International Gordon Bennett balloon race), which still continues, was inaugurated by him in 1906. He and his partner bought a house and settled in the suburbs of Brisbane like other young couples. It is interesting to note that this same year was declared a period of mourning by Aboriginal people. (Abstraction) Citizen - Sutton Gallery On closer inspection we see it is an image of an Aboriginal man. 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. Bennett used it to question notions of self. In 2003, Bennett embarked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings, marking a dramatic shift in his art practice, formally and conceptually. Among these was the harrowing struggle for identity that ensued from the repression and denial of his Aboriginal heritage. The impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people and culture from this point was devastating. AUSTRALIAN ART COMES TO TATE MODERN - Qantas News Room Unfinished Business The Art of Gordon Bennett - Queensland Art Gallery Underlying Bennetts admiration for Basquiat was the need to re- contextualise the issues that he had explored throughout his career as an artist. . This canvas is loosely divided into three parts. While the conceptual framework underpinning Bennetts art remained remarkably consistent, his art practice was characterised by some dramatic stylistic shifts over twenty years. 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. 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. 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. Gordon bennett the outsider Free Essays | Studymode While some people may argue this has been a quick road to success, and that my work is authorised by my Aboriginality, I maintain that I dont have to be an Aborigine to do what I do, and that quick success is not an inherent attribute of an Aboriginal heritage, as history has shown, nor is it that unusual for college graduates who have something relevant to say. 2. The early 'Possession Island' (Abstraction))' 1991 was one choice. This artwork is constructed of obvious layers: The layers of dots, reminiscent of Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting, with lines of perspective a Western tradition. This is similar to the way a Pointillist painting can only be seen effectively from a distance to bring the image into focus. 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. Gordon Bennett, The Manifest Toe, in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House/ G + G Arts International, Sydney, 1996, pp.962.Kelly Gellatly et.al., Gordon Bennett: A Survey, exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2007. For given the artists own history of engagement, these works are not considered simple abstract paintings, but abstract paintings by Gordon Bennett; coloured or even tainted by, the history, concerns and associations of the artists earlier work. This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. This is the second of two works entitled Possession Island that Bennett painted following Australias bicentennial celebrations in 1988. Jenna Gribbon, Silver Tongue, 2019, Price ranges of small prints by Pablo Picasso. Art Guide Australia January/February 2021 - Issuu 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. 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. Ian McLean 2. Who was Paul Keating? At auction, a number of Picassos paintings have sold for more than $100 million. Bennett indicates the need to be reconciled within the context of culture and history to develop a full sense of identity. The inclusion of the grid as the foundation of the installation appears to confirm this. To the right of the canvas, Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 is clearly referenced. Using a painting technique, create a finished artwork based on one or some of these experiments. 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. With reference to at least two artworks, identify and explain some of the strategies and techniques you believe Bennett has used to engage the viewer. Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 27, Identities come from somewhere, have histories, and like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation. John Citizen lets me take my Australian citizenship and cultural upbringing back from the netherworld of the imagined Other. Explain. Bennett employs this system using diagrams often labelled with acronyms, such as CVP (central vanishing point), that refer to key features of the system. 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. 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 It confronts the bigotry and discrimination suffered by Aborigines, using a rich visual language based in both Aboriginal and Western traditions. For example, Aboriginal deaths in custody was recognised as a significant issue. He lived and worked in Brisbane. Gordon Bennett's "Outsider" is a highly emotive piece that conveys various ideas through appropriate symbolism. 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!" Lieutenant General Henry Gordon Bennett | Australian War Memorial The reality is, however, that I have never really had much choice; and I have been faced with my work not entering some collections on the grounds of it being not Aboriginal enough, to being asked to sell my work through stalls at cultural festivalsGordon Bennett 2. 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. This culminated in the Notes to Basquiat series in 2003. I AM is borrowed from a well known art work, Victory over death 2, 1970 by New Zealand artist Colin McCahon (19191987) . He has written of his approach to his work: Bennetts practice include painting, printmaking, drawing, video, performance, installation and sculpture, and challenges racial stereotypes and critically reflects on Australias history (official and unacknowledged) by addressing issues relating to the role of language and systems of thought in forging identity. The colour black and other histories: The art of Gordon Bennett 3 Beds. Gouged into the skin like a tattoo, these markings will never heal or fade away. It acts as a question with many possibilities and answers. His use of I AM emphasises this. The men also paint their bodies in red, yellow, white and black, or in feather down stuck with human blood when they dress up, and make music with a didgeridoo. Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett 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. Gordon Bennett, &The manifest toe, pp. The word DISPERSE was used by the colonisers to represent the killing of Aboriginal people. Fri. 10-9, Sat. Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. 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. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name. For example, placing the word DISPLACE under the image of Captain Cook coming ashore at Botany Bay focuses attention on the dispossession of Aboriginal people rather than on the discovery of Australia. After years of critiquing art-historical standards, Bennett has himself become the standard bearer. A fleet of tall ships sailed around Australia as part of the commemoration of settlement. 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. They communicated important Christian stories to the congregation. There are a number of reasons why I began painting abstract paintings that focused on overt visual phenomena, as opposed to explicit visual content. The title of the work itself is unsettling. The other was 'Number . But the mathematical formulation of linear perspective in the fifteenth century had a powerful influence on the representation of space in Western art from this point. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Gordon Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane before his unexpected death in 2014. Gordon Bennett (9 October 1955 - 3 June 2014) [1] was an Australian artist of Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. Bennett compels the viewer to engage with and question the values and ideas of the artists he appropriated. Felicity Allen, Gordon Bennett interviewed by Felicity Allen in the. These images include scenes featuring tall ships, the landing of Captain Cook at Botany Bay, and several scenes that reveal the violence and tension that often characterised the relationship between colonisers and the colonised. 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. Who was Gordon Bennett? Research other artists who use appropriation and select an artist whose work interests you. The 'cancel culture' debate winds me up. Both artists have an affinity with Jazz, Rap and Hip Hop music. He was born in New York, May 10th 1841 and died 4 days after his 77th Birthday in Beaulieu near Nizza/France. While his work was increasingly exhibited within a national and international context, the combination of his position (or as Bennett would argue label) as an (urban) Aboriginal artist, and the subject matter of his work, seemed to ensure inclusion within certain curatorial and critical frameworks, and largely determine interpretation and reception. Looking at the image from different viewpoints helps us to discover different perspectives. "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. cat. Bennetts use of the grid in these and other artworks suggests questions and ideas. Discover Gordon Bennett's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett Against the background of the illusionistic representation of the landscape they capture our attention, alerting us to the fact that there are other ways of representing and understanding the landscape not just the European perspectives that have dominated our cultural history. a moment of possession; the place where he came ashore and allegedly claimed . Gordon Bennett (artist) - Wikipedia Find examples of the work of these artists. 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. Kelly Gellatly 1. The imagery in this painting focuses on binary opposites, including the Aboriginal figure and various symbols of European and Indigenous art and culture . 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. These act as disturbances. 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. Bennett layered these two distinctly different artists with his own work work previously appropriated from yet another context. What is your personal interpretation of the abstract paintings? The strategy of word association subverts the values and meaning traditionally associated with the image. * 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 His status as an artist has been elevated to hero with his contribution to Action Painting. Our experiences in this society manifest themselves in neuroses, demoralization, anger, and in art. Gordon Bennett! The Scot behind the popular saying 2 February 2021. I am purposely not defining him only as Aboriginal because he himself does not want to be defined only as such. 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. In Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his other) 2001, Bennett confronts these issues within a global context. The background colours and features of the landscape in each panel of Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire suggest a vast Australian desert . Bennetts interest in adopting a strategy of intervention and disturbance in the field of representation manifests in many different ways in his art. While self- portraits usually address issues of personal identity, Bennett uses this form of representation to also look at issues of identity on a national scale. Strange to think of Gordon Bennett as an almost classical figure in contemporary Australian art. 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. 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. Fundamentally, he deconstructed history to question the truth of the past. 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. Although there are many forms of Aboriginal art, dot painting is widely seen as synonymous with Aboriginal art since the late 1970s, when the dot painting of the Western Desert attracted unprecedented national and international interest in Aboriginal art. Gordon Bennett 1. The circular forms in the sky are inspired by the brilliant bursts of light in van Goghs Starry night. Mondrian, a Dutch De Stijl artist and a Theosophist, used art to search empirical truths and their source. Media Releases - MCA, Qantas and Tate announce first series of He found this liberating. Include reference to specific examples in your discussion. Like words, visual images, forms and elements are powerful signifiers of meaning. January 26, 1988: Spectator craft surround tall ship The Bounty on Sydney Harbour as it heads towards Farm Cove while a formation of air force jets are in a fly-past overhead, part of the First Fleet re-enactment for Australias Bicentennial, A strategy of intervention and disturbance, Layering and re-defining Creating new language, Re-mixing and exchanging A global perspective, Outsider and Altered body print (Shadow figure howling at the moon), Installation of Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire, 1989, in exhibition Gordon Bennett (2007), Visual images, forms and elements as signifiers, Art practice a multidisciplinary approach, Victorian Foundation for Living Australian Artists, International Audience Engagement Network (IAE), Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, p. 20, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 15, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 21, These experiences are clearly reflected in the Home sweet home series 1993-4, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 27, Kelly Gellatly, Conversation: Bill Wright talks to Gordon Bennett with contributions by Bill Wright, Justin Clemens and Jane Devery, Gordon Bennett (exh.
