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. 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 final panel in the sequence of six images in Untitled is a black square. These binary opposites insider/outsider, black/white, primitive/civilised have had a powerful influence on perceptions of European and Indigenous people and culture. 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. That was to be the extent of my formal education on Aborigines and Aboriginal culture until Art College. Explore. Using this list, find a range of artworks that you could appropriate to help communicate your personal identity visually. Today a monument exists on the site commemorating his arrival. Experiment with enhancing or diminishing different layers to create a distinctive character. He carefully staged each image in his studio, posing the sitter against a painted backdrop. Bennetts art is not always easy to look at. Traditionally these arches were built by the Romans to celebrate victory in war. 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. What legal, moral and ethical rights does an artist have to control the way their work is seen and viewed in exhibitions, books or online. Gordon Bennett Number Nine, 2008 Acrylic paint on linen 71 9/10 119 7/10 in | 182.5 304 cm Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) The Rocks Get notifications for similar works Create Alert Want to sell a work by this artist? Opens in a new window or tab. New perspectives on familiar images and stories are presented. 2. It acts as a question with many possibilities and answers. 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. 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. However, in each image the grid effectively highlights the controlled order and structure of knowledge systems and learning in Western culture, and how these frame and influence perception and understanding of self, history and culture. After years of critiquing art-historical standards, Bennett has himself become the standard bearer. When Gordon Bennett was labelled an Aboriginal Artist he was othered as an Aborigine and all the preconceptions that entails. 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. Lindt created many photographic portraits of Aboriginal subjects. What evidence can you see in this self-portrait of Bennett linking issues of personal identity with broader issues related to history and culture? 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. Bennett also had ongoing concerns about how his Aboriginal identity and his interest in subjects related to Aboriginality were framing and hence limiting the way his artistic identity and his work were perceived. 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. This is evident in many of his works, including Outsider. GORDON BENNETT AND HIS RACES From the Book: Die Gordon Bennett Ballon Rennen (The Gordon Bennett Races)by Ulrich Hohmann Sr along with articles by others.Many of his contemporaries have considered Mister James Gordon Bennett to be a spleeny American. Bennett has included the framed photograph in the panel, to the right of the painted figure. 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. The timeline could be presented in hardcopy for display in the classroom, or as an ICT project incorporating images and audio. 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. At the heart of all human life is a concept of self. In 1999 Bennett adopted an alter ego and began making and exhibiting Pop Art inspired images under the name of John Citizen, a persona representative of the Australian Mr Average. . As an Australian of both Aboriginal and Anglo Celtic descent, Bennett felt he had no access to his indigenous heritage. Include in your discussion reference to Bennetts appropriation of The nine shots 1985 by Imants Tillers. I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. It was upon entering the workforce that I really learnt how low the general opinion of Aboriginal people was. Bennett depicts self as a black empty vessel, coffin- like with lash markings almost disguised by a thick layer of black paint. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 In Tate Modern Level 3: A Year in Art: Australia 1992 Level 3: A Year in Art: Australia 1992 Artist Gordon Bennett 1955-2014 Medium Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas Dimensions Support: 1843 1845 mm Collection Tate Acquisition Bennett was in possession of all four, all of which will become evident upon a glance at a summary of his life. The content of the work was getting to me emotionally. Identity is fixed and self is understood in the context of words such as Abo, Boong, Coon and Darkie . We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung People as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the NGV is built. His status as an artist has been elevated to hero with his contribution to Action Painting. However, while apparently recognising and presenting these motifs/symbols as signifiers of meaning, Citizen does not appear to have the same interest as Bennett in interrogating the systems and values these motifs represent or the role they have played in shaping identity, history and understanding. Strange to think of Gordon Bennett as an almost classical figure in contemporary Australian art. The arms that extend in opposite directions across the two panels of the painting represent different perspectives on the impact of the Enlightenment. They reference the massacres of Aboriginal people in Myth of the Western man (White man's burden) (1992) and The nine ricochets (Fall down black fella, Jump up white fella (1990) and question the valorising of Captain Cook in Big Romantic Painting (Apotheosis of Captain Cook) (1993) and Possession Island (1991). 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. These include the tall ship and the appropriated logos featuring kitsch and racist references to Indigenous people, and the ominous juxtaposition of bags of flour and bottles of poison. L120238 Gordon Bennett. Bennett repositions the subject of the painting in other ways too, by including black footprints that diminish into the background of the composition. He described his upbringing as overwhelmingly Euro-Australian, with never a word spoken about my Aboriginal heritage. Pinterest. 22-24, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, in The Art of Gordon Bennett, p. 32, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, pp. What typically Australian qualities are associated with these characters? SOLD FEB 21, 2023. This pastiche of style and image is like a D J (Disc Jockey) sampling and remixing different styles of music to create new expressions. The other was 'Number . 1 0-5-30 j RED STAR Now 35 oft on all RED STARRED SIWFMIMUIS IliMMS . These signs can also be read as evidence that disputes the claim that Australia was discovered terra nullius or nobodys land. Gordon Bennett 1, Bennetts Aboriginal heritage came through his mother. In the Christian tradition light is associated with goodness and righteousness while darkness is associated with evil. The first panel of Bennetts triptych, Requiem, depicts Trugannini (c. 1812 1876), a Palawa woman from Tasmania. I had never thought to question those narratives and I certainly had never been taught at school to question them only to believe them. He serves as a counterpoint to Gordon Bennetts Other, and yet we are the one and the same. He used his self as the vehicle to do so. 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. Gordon Bennett 3. It is based on a newspaper photograph of Bennetts mother and another young Aboriginal woman, dressed in crisp white uniforms, polishing the elaborate architectural fittings in a grand interior of a homestead in Singleton. This influence is seen in the rhythmic movement of Bennetts Notes to Basquiat series. As far as pinning down who John Citizen actually was, Im not interested in doing that. See more ideas about artist, art, straight photography. James Gordon Bennett Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification. Bennett's 'unfinished business' was to encourage a great sensitivity and action in terms of these conditions," said Ms Stanhope. Gordon Bennett, born on 16 April 1887 at Balwyn, Melbourne, was Australia's most controversial Second World War commander. Gordon Bennett explores these ideas in Self portrait: Interior/ Exterior , 1992. Discuss with reference to examples in at least two works by Bennett. Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). my work was largely about ideas rather than emotional content emanating from some stereotype of a tortured soul. This was common practice among young Aboriginal girls and women. 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. Citizens more recent work includes a series of interiors inspired by the decorator and home magazines that circulate widely in popular culture. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991. Jenna Gribbon, Silver Tongue, 2019, Price ranges of small prints by Pablo Picasso. 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 Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall . These sources included social studies texts. Is this response informed by Bennetts work? 35, 36. Comparisons between Basquiat and Bennett often focus on the artists similar backgrounds and experiences. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. Bloody handprints are stamped across the walls. 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. In the Home dcorseries Bennett used gridded compositions that refer to the paintings of Dutch artistPiet Mondrian (1872 1944). However the hand in the opposite panel controls and threatens the Aboriginal figure represented as a jack- in- the- box. They are strategically and prominently placed at the centre top of each panel, each radiating an aura of light created by white dots. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007 Picassos sizable oeuvre grew to include over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures,ceramics, theater sets, and costume designs. However, the cross- like form in Bennetts painting has an image of Bennetts mother, kneeling before it, with a cleaning rag in her hand, recalling her early training and work as a domestic servant under the governments protection. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. It was no accident that Bennett used this event to question the way history is written and interpreted. In European tradition these are seen as a means of mapping and defining space. Bennetts art engages with historical and contemporary questions of cultural and personal identity, with a specific focus on Australias colonial past and its postcolonial present. Celebrations continued throughout the year and gave renewed focus to traditional images and stories of the nations settlement history. Collect and find photographs of a wide variety of people of different ethnicities, cultures and physical appearances. I was certainly aware of it by the time I was sixteen years old after having been in the workforce for twelve months. He drew on and sampled from many artists and traditions to create a new language and a new way of reading these images. 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. Brushing aside the tempting opportunity to ridicule many frames of reference in that sentence (I mean, don't get me . . Gordon Bennett arrived on Christmas Island in 1979 to take a post as leader of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. Discuss with reference to the same works. John Citizen was a work in progress that allows me to follow other streams of thought in my practice. 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. They became a potent symbol of the celebrations. Gordon Bennett (9 October 1955 - 3 June 2014) [1] was an Australian artist of Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. 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. 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. In September 2017, Bennett's 1991 Possession Island was unveiled at London's Tate Modern. Possession Island (Abstraction), Gordon Bennett, 1991, Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island (1991)*. Compare and contrast Possession Island with one or more of the following artworks: What does this comparison reveal about the relationship between visual images, culture and history? Gordon Bennett was born on 9 October, 1955 in Monto, Australia. The representation of Aborigines has been reduced to caricature. 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. There is strong symbolism associated with the placement of the figure beneath the Roman triumphal arch. In the first painting by Bennett, Possession Island 1991 (Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales), the only figure painted in full vibrant colour is an isolated Aboriginal servant holding a drinks tray. Blood is a potent symbol and has historically been a measure of Aboriginality. Pollock becomes a catalyst for transformation. I found people were always confusing me as a person with the content of my work. The viewer is made to step back and allow the eyes to form the images. 4. It is interesting to note that this same year was declared a period of mourning by Aboriginal people. 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 3, Bennett married in 1977. What is your personal interpretation of the abstract paintings? Different members of the class could be assigned different cultural traditions to research and then prepare an illustrated presentation for the class. Linear perspective is a system for organising visual information. 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. While these may indicate the way maps are constructed to find different locations, they also represent the first letter of racial slurs. Within the Home dcor series Gordon Bennett escalates the sampling and quoting of other artists and works to develop a pastiche. Its like images become part of the Australian unconscious. How does Bennetts use of appropriation reflect an interest in some of the moral and ethical issues associated with this practice. 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. Narratives of exploration, colonisation and settlement failed to recognise the sovereign rights (or sovereignty) of Australias Indigenous people. There was always some sense of social engagement. Jackson Pollock is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Both artists have an affinity with Jazz, Rap and Hip Hop music. These questions include how traditional characterisations of light and darkness have influenced perceptions and experience of race and culture. Further reading 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. SOLD FEB 10, 2023. ), National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 2007, p. 97, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, pp. Possession Island No 2 is representative of Bennetts wider practice, which explores issues of post-colonisation and Aboriginal identity. Bennett was concerned that his identity and work was seen as coming from a narrow framework. The title of the work itself is unsettling. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. Bennetts earliest works, including The coming of the light, 1987, reflect a raw and expressive style. I didnt go to art college to graduate as an Aboriginal Artist. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas in two parts. The Stripe series of abstract paintings represents a kind of freedom for me as an artist. As a self- portrait, the artist seems to be present everywhere within the installation but is in fact nowhere. 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. while Bennett may have attempted, in recent years, to disconnect from the politics of his earlier practice, there is also a sense within these paintings, of the impossibility of such a task.
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