They are strategically and prominently placed at the centre top of each panel, each radiating an aura of light created by white dots. Who was Gordon Bennett? The artist has effectively communicated his beliefs on the suppression of Aboriginal culture by combining confronting imagery with the concepts of Vincent Van Gogh, Francisco Goya and Classical art. Inspired, Pollock removed the canvas from the easel and worked with it flat on the floor, using movement and gesture to flick and drip paint onto the canvas. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. Discuss with reference to the same works. Include a selection of relevant artworks by Gordon Bennett to illustrate your timeline. He acknowledged that much of his work was autobiographical, but he emphasises that there was conceptual distance involved in his art making . 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. There are a number of reasons why I began painting abstract paintings that focused on overt visual phenomena, as opposed to explicit visual content. This activity could be done as a group activity with different students researching different dates/events and presenting talks to the class about their significance. 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. 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. With eyes closed, these heads appear as blind, mute and lifeless witnesses to the surrounding conflict and struggle. His work is layered and complex and often incorporates images, styles or references drawn from sources such as social history text books, western art history and Indigenous art. In Malevichs work the black square is seen as having a strong and even spiritual presence. Gewerblich. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas in two parts. 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. 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. After years of critiquing art-historical standards, Bennett has himself become the standard bearer. It recalls the way stereotypes, labels, identities and systems of thought are fixed. 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. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). The purchase of this artwork by the Whitlam Labor Government (19731975) was fraught with controversy. Gordon Bennett was born on 9 October, 1955 in Monto, Australia. His bold and humane art challenged racial stereotypes and provoked critical reflection on Australia's official history and national identity. Possession Island 1992. 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. Bennett not only used Basquiat images, but begins to paint in his style. Celebrations continued throughout the year and gave renewed focus to traditional images and stories of the nations settlement history. After 2003 he moved away from figurative language to work in an abstract idiom (see Number Nine 2008, Tate T15515). 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. He is not disturbed by slashes of paint, but painted carefully and outlined by the precise grid behind him. It is a monument that also unintentionally signals the subsequent dispossession of Aboriginal people from their homeland. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991 Oil and acrylic on canvas 71 7/10 71 7/10 in | 182 182 cm Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) The Rocks Get notifications for similar works Create Alert Want to sell a work by this artist? 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. Kelly Gellatly 3. Gleichzeitig war es das erste Jahr ohne Stadt-zu-Stadt-Rennen, die nach dem Todesrennen" Paris-Madrid . Reynolds wrote books and articles about the history of Australian settlement as a story of invasion and genocide. Bennett investigates the way stereotypes are constructed by exploring words and images in opposites. Experiment with enhancing or diminishing different layers to create a distinctive character. 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. Gordon Bennett, an Australian Aboriginal artist, demonstrates this theory through his work. At the same time I have resisted being positioned as a spokesperson for my people since I do not have nor do I seek, such a mandate by declining to speak about my work. Buildings and planes collide. 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. His work also includes performance art, video, photography and printmaking. How might John Citizen be seen as reflection of the post Keating era? 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. 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. 4. Bennett also includes copies and samples of his own work, such as Possession Island and Big Romantic painting (The Apotheosis of Captain Cook) 1993, with other found images. Identity is fixed and self is understood in the context of words such as Abo, Boong, Coon and Darkie . 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. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. Bennett has often used dots in his artworks as part of his investigation of issues of identity, and history. However these ideas and values simultaneously oppressed Indigenous people and their cultural and knowledge systems. The grotesque also interested Bennett as a means of disrupting conventional ways of seeing and understanding. Within the context of Australian art, he freed himself from being categorised solely as an Indigenous artist by creating an ongoing pop art-inspired alter ego named John Citizen. 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. Scan these into the computer using a photographic software package like Photoshop. 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. RM 2JEMG56 - A rare old photograph of the 1903 Gordon Bennett trophy race, Ireland - In the 'pits' attendants are cooling down an overheated vehicle with a bucket of water. Every object is carefully and clearly painted, yet the images conceptually blur together as they intersect and interlace through the grid, across the canvas. Gordon Bennett, The Manifestoe, Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. Is this response informed by Bennetts work? Victorious soldiers triumphantly and ceremoniously paraded under such arches, sometimes accompanied by their captives. Its like images become part of the Australian unconscious. While these may indicate the way maps are constructed to find different locations, they also represent the first letter of racial slurs. The only clearly defined part of Possession Island is the black skinned male figure in the centre. In Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his other) 2001, Bennett confronts these issues within a global context. Bennett also includes copies and samples of his own work, such as Possession Island and Big Romantic painting (The Apotheosis of Captain Cook) 1993, with other found images. So, painting in an overtly abstract manner was a way to go silent on the issues involved and yet still keep painting. For Mondrian the grid became the essence of all forms. The pale, marble- like sculpted heads on the bed remind us of the Classical art and learning that has been privileged in Western culture above other forms of art and learning, including those associated with Indigenous cultures. On closer inspection we see it is an image of an Aboriginal man. What does this interpretation add to your understanding of the artwork? This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. Gordon Bennett 3. 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. For example, Aboriginal deaths in custody was recognised as a significant issue. By overlaying perspective diagrams on images constructed according to the conventions of perspective, such as the landscape in Requiem, Bennett reminds us of the learned and culturally specific systems that influence knowledge and perception. 35, 36. 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. These are paintings about painting. From 2003 Bennett worked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings that mark another significant shift in his practice. 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. Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) created the triptych Bloodlines 1993 early in his career. SOLD FEB 21, 2023. He used weapons or gum tree branches as props, to construct an image that reflected European ideas of Aboriginal types. We would like to hear from you. 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.