Written just three years after Bennett graduated from art school as a mature aged student, it gives a very clear sense of his early ambition and political purpose. I already knew Bennett was in dialogue with other artists and their distinct painterly idioms: Mondrian, Margaret Preston, Thomas Bock, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Jackson Pollock to name just a few. To learn more about how to request items watch this short online video . Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. I was drawn once again to the semiotic Aboriginal Australians -- Politics and government. GORDON BENNETT (b. Gordon Bennett Australia 10 August 1955 - 3 June 2014 Notes to Basquiat (City) cultures, with wider historic references to the radical and the marginalised. NOTES TO BASQUIAT: MYTH OF THE WESTERN MAN, 2001. synthetic polymer paint on linen. Exhibited: "Treasures Gallery", National Library of Australia, 12 December 2012 - 7 July 2013. inscribed in pencil on reverse : G Bennett 19-5-2000 / "NOTES TO BASQUIAT : DOUBLE VISION" / Acrylic on Linen 152 x 182.5 cms / Jean Cocteau "orpheus" / MIRRORS WOULD DO WELL / TO REFLECT MORE". Estimate: $80,000 - $100,000. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Closed Good Friday & Christmas day The University of Queensland, Brisbane Acquired with the Assistance of the Visual Arts and Crafts Board of the Australia Council, 1989, The Estate of Gordon Bennett Collection: The University of Queensland. We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism. Galtung, J. Gordon Bennett 'Notes to Basquiat' (911) 2001 synthetic polymer paint on linen 182.5 x 304.0 cm. Bennetts painting Notes to Basquiat (2001) presents distinctly cultural conflict in contemporary Australian society. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas and rope on wood I confess I used to think so, but seeing this exhibition has made me reconsider. This citation of Basquiat's work acts for Bennett as a mode of communication with the American artist who died in 1988. Accordingly, in the present Notes to Basquiat: (Ab)original, 1999, the experience of race and life generally in the northern and southern hemispheres is both differentiated and conflated through Bennett's highly sophisticated mimicry of Basquiat's spontaneous urban style. Professor of Art Theory and Fine Art, Griffith University. )Man + Space: Kwangju Biennale 2000, exhibition catalogue, Kwangju Biennale Foundation, South Korea, 2000, p. 273 (illus. Bennett, Gordon. Writing in his Manifest Toe in 1996, Bennett said: If I were to choose a single word to describe my art practice it would be the word question. A humanist at heart, Bennett created works which are grounded in personal experience and an authentic voice. Forms and styles of representation recur, transmute and metamorphose across his oeuvre in a dizzying fashion. Gordon Bennett's paintings in the late 1980s and early 90s were informed by theories about appropriation - the borrowing of images from other artists and visual sources - and by post-colonial theories about identity and history. Far from being eternally fixed in The, In the late 1990s Bennett responded to the personal experiences and practice of Puerto-Rican Haitian-American artist Jean-Michael Basquiat by producing a series of paintings that referenced the style and. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia. Bennett not only borrows images from the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, but also begins to mimic Basquiat's spontaneous and gestural urban style of painting, reflecting his involvement in the graffiti culture of the United States. The Estate of Gordon Bennett, Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art. (2014). Bennett has reinterpreted their statement as a comment on the government's lack of apology to the Stolen Generations. Collection: Bendigo Art Gallery, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. He also wrote an open letter to the dead artist celebrating their cultural and artistic similarities, as well as their shared love of jazz, rap and . Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: To Dance on a Tightrope," 1998. private collection, Brisbane. and the histories of shared experience and levels we can relate to each some essentialised past, they are subject to the continuous "play" of why. Digital master available National Library of Australia; Request this item to view in the Library's reading rooms using your library card. Bellas Gallery, Brisbane Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1999. Gordon Bennett, Notes to Basquiat (The Death of Irony), 2002, National Gallery of Australia, . "In the late 1990s Bennett responded to the personal experiences and practice of Puerto-Rican Haitian-American artist Jean-Michael Basquiat by producing a series of paintings that referenced the style and appropriated motifs of Basquiat's own art. cat., 2001, front cover View artist profile Add to wishlist. Its Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000. I was also aware of his concern with western systems of representation and their oppressive effects. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 was purchased jointly by Tate and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia with fund provided by the Qantas Foundation, 2016. Impossible aims, such as this one, often underpin and drive the work of major artists; an achievable aim after all would be quickly satisfied. The art and legacy of Gordon Bennett (1955-2014), one of Australia's most influential contemporary artists, will be on show at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from 7 November 2020 to 21 March 2021. In 1998, ten years after his death, Bennett wrote an open letter to Basquiat that explained his motivations: To some, writing a letter to a person posthumously may seem very tacky and an attempt to gain some kind of attention, even steal your crown. This is the third major survey show to consider the breadth of Bennetts work and should not be missed. Search the catalogue for collection items held by the National Library of Australia. of the past, which is waiting to be found, and which, when found, will past efforts to "explain" myself - it reads: "Cultural identities are Ultimately betraying Bennetts highly idiosyncratic vision however, is his characteristic engagement of the viewer here through his thesaurus inspired word-play designed to activate the complex web connecting sight, speech and thought, and thus highlights the links between history and meaning established in his oeuvre. The work also relates to Basquiat's paintings, following the same principles as his graffiti, signifying the existence of a more basic truth hidden within a given event or thought"--Information from acquisitions documentation. by Greg Tate which reads: "To be a race-identified race-refugee is to By Julie Ewington Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. This task is the unfinished business referenced in the title of the show. Not only is art about political content, form is also at stake. View Notes to Basquiat (1999) By Bennett Gordon; Synthetic polymer paint on linen; 182.5 x 182.5 cm. Provenance. Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock. Arguing that the codes of Western art, literature, law and science introduced with European settlement have become a prison from which indigenous people cannot escape but rather, only appropriate Bennett sought to picture such manifold conspiracies, employing the deconstructivist aesthetic of postmodernism to re-present the histories and politics underlying the Australian social landscape. This major display, drawn from the National Gallery's collection, brings together works by First Nations and non-Indigenous artists from across Australia, including work by artists from Asia and the Pacific. . 1955 Gordon Bennett's paintings in the late 1980s and early 90s were informed by theories about appropriation - the borrowing of images from other artists and visual sources - and by post-colonial theories about identity and history. On the opposite corner, however, a pair of heads labelled Caucasian and black/abo stare blankly into the void. 120 x 80cm I was excited to find in the essay "Welcome to the Terrordome: Jean Again echoing Benjamin, Bennett draws a direct link between civilisation and barbarism, or here Enlightenment and suicide. See opening hours Sutton Galleries, Melbourne . 23-25, Sydney, May 2017-Jun 2017, 24 (colour illus.). To learn more about Copies Direct watch this. In other words, such discrimination and historic prejudice directly relate to the current cultural conflict and ongoing search for identity for Indigenous Australians (NGV 2014). 1 / 1 - Notes to Basquiat - Big Shoes - 2002. synthetic polymer paint on linen. John Saxby (Editor), Look, 'The art that made me: Reg Mombassa', Sydney, Nov 2015, 13. (2014). Georges Petitjean, Kitty Zijlmans and Ian McLean, Outsider/insider: the art of Gordon Bennett, Ghent, 2012, 50 (colour illus.). He first became aware of his dual heritage when he was a young teenager. your book, a reference to Stuart Hall which I have included in my own come from somewhere, have histories, and like everything which is historical, Synthetic polymer paint on paper Bennett directly referenced the work of many other artists throughout his career, including Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Vincent Van Gogh. Notes to Basquiat: Kwijibo 1998 Unfinished Business can be seen until 21 March 2021. He did not discover his Aboriginal heritage until around age 11 and always resisted being pigeonholed as an Aboriginal artist. . Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia Susan Best receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council . Both series used a conspicuous sampling of other artists work, re-contextualising these images into symbols of the wider exclusion and disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples. In Bennetts most anthologised article, acerbically titled The Manifest Toe, he describes his approach to art using an expression that is often used in critical rather than art theory: the politics of representation. Here we get to the crux of Bennetts contribution. 152.0 x 188.5 cm. Certainly, the notebook quote reflects how Bennetts reputation has been cemented in Australian art history. We acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, the traditional custodians of the Country on which the Art Gallery of NSW stands. Bennett conversed about his conceptual painting practice as 'based on the semiotics of style and paint application, images and text, historical and contemporary juxta-position'. Meet one of Australias most important contemporary artists, whose bold and playful works explore the politics of identity, Gordon BennettHome Dcor (Relative/Absolute) Flowers for Mathinna #2 1999acrylic on linen182.5 x 182.5cmCollection: Museum of Contemporary Art, purchased with funds provided by the MCA Foundation, 2012 The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Gordon Bennett explored indigenous past through his conceptual art, Retrieved August 24 2014, from, http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/gordon-bennett-explored-indigenous-past-through-his-conceptual-art-20140627-zsnql.htm. Attending to form as much as content enables a different view of Bennetts oeuvre and critical purpose. Michel Basquiat and the "Dark" side of Hybridity" by Dick Hebdige, in Far from being grounded in mere "recovery" Bennett emerges as one of the most important Australian artists of the latter part of the 20th century and one we have certainly not finished interpreting. Get the best price for your artwork or collection. Gordon Bennett was one of the leading artists of his generation and received widespread recognition internationally for his striking . In his Welt series of paintings of the early 1990s, he painted over the created scarified surface of Jackson Pollock inspired drip paintings in matt black. is inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Haitian-American the points of identification, or suture, which are made within the discourses The strange row of heads depicted in the very early work, The Coming of the Light (1987) forms part of the background of this same image. In the late 1990s Bennett responded to the personal experiences and practice of Puerto-Rican Haitian-American artist Jean-Michael Basquiat by producing a series of paintings that referenced the style and appropriated motifs of Basquiats own art. Inscriptions: "G. Bennett Nov. 1999 / Notes to Basquiat: Untitled"--On verso. They reference the massacres of Aboriginal people in Myth of the Western man (White mans 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). This painting emanates from the 'Notes to Basquiat' series of paintings, where the artist takes appropriation to a new level within his practice. In Gordon Bennetts splendidly savage painting Notes to Basquiat: Perfect teeth 2000, his bright, biting satire sets white teeth against black skin in a retro pop-culture parody; the word mono in the centre of the canvas suggests the dominance of one colour in art and life, as well as implying what we might think of monotones (wherever found) and the assertion of a monoculture. Gordon Bennett, Retrieved August 24, 2014, from, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/04.html. Please check your requests before visiting. ^ Gordon Bennett in Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings, Power Publications and Griffith University Art Museum, 2020, p. 132. Home Decor (After M Preston) No 3 2010 2010 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 182.5 x 152cm The Estate of Gordon Bennett. (2014). This critical orientation is particularly evident in Bennetts history paintings, displayed in the third room of the exhibition. In his artists statement, composed as a letter to Basquiat, Bennett says: View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow. Australian artist Gordon Bennett's exhibition, a powerful attack on systemic racism, is called Be Polite. Thus, the oppressive ideologies and events surrounding colonization have been detrimental to the cultural identity of Aboriginal people and has consequently affected their social wellbeing today. . We notify you each time your favorite artists feature in an exhibition, auction or the press, Access detailed sales records for over 657,106 artists, and more than two decades of past auction results, Buy unsold paintings, prints and more for the best price, Notes to Basquiat: Myth of The Western Man ,2001, Notes to Basquiat: Cut the Circle II ,2001, Home Decor (After Margaret Presont) ; Preston+DeStijl = Citizen (My Boomerang Won't Come Back) 1996 - Gordon Bennett, Home Decor (Counter Composition) Black Swan, 1999 - Gordon Bennett. Major retrospectives of his work toured Icon and Arnolfini galleries and Heine Onstad Kunstsenter in Europe during 19992000, Australian State galleries between 20072009 and The Netherlands in 2012. This included abstract expressionism and a dot aesthetic inspired by the Papunya Tula art movement of the Australian Western Desert. Gordon BennettAbstraction (Native) 2013acrylic on linen183 x 152.3cmCollection: Museum of Contemporary Art, purchased with funds provided by the MCA Foundation, 2013 The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Explainer: what is postmodernism? Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia Paul Matharan and Arnaud Morvan, Mmoires vives: une histoire de l'art aborigine, Bordeaux, 2013, 220, 221 (colour illus.). material existence, even though we may be separated by cultural context, It weaves . His playful yet powerfully political artworks borrow images from other artists and mix and re-contextualise elements from Western and non-Western art history. Signed and dated u.l. Cultural Violence, Journal of Peace Research, vol.27 (3), 291-305. I am trying to paint the one painting that will change the world before which even the most rabid racists will fall to their knees of course this is in itself stupid and I am a fool but I think to myself what have I got to lose by trying? Synthetic polymer paint on paper An artist who builds houses and swings and cares a lot about community, A discussion with Amandla Stenberg, Mars and Lorna Simpson about the youth-led movement #ArtHoe and how it relates to Simpsons work, Bennett was born in Monto, Queensland, in 1955 to an indigenous Australian mother and an Anglo Celtic migrant father. 16, Paris, 08 Dec 2013, 16 (colour illus.). In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition . Synthetic polymer paint on paper The diversity of Bennetts work is another striking feature. In Bennetts painting, the imagery of 9/11, for instance, illustrates metaphorically the ongoing religious/cultural conflict deeply embedded within Australian society that is comparable to an event like 9/11 where cultural/religious difference is perceived to instigate violence. (Ed.). GORDON BENNETT born 1955 Notes to Basquiat: Hand of God 1999 synthetic polymer paint on linen signe. You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video embedded. signed, dated and inscribed verso upper left: G.Bennett 9-6-2000 / Notes to Basquiat: Liberty / acrylic / 152 x 188cm. Indeed, Bennetts extraordinary attention to visual languages, their meanings and implications, is the key revelation about his oeuvre I have taken away from the current exhibition. We will contact you if necessary. Notes to Basquiat: Australiana 1998 1955) Notes to Basquiat: Female Pelvis signed, dated and inscribed 'G Bennett April 1999 NOTES TO BASQUIAT FEMALE PELVIS' (on the reverse) acrylic on cotton duck 50.5 x 50.5 cm. Gordon Bennett was a painter of history and histories. By quoting from a range of cultures and artistic styles, he questions and undermines colonial history and racist stereotypes. Others are held in regional, state and national collections (National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales) as well as international collections including Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam.LUCIE REEVES-SMITH, Important Australian + International Fine Art, Gordon Bennett, managed by John Citizen Arts Pty Ltd. Outsider 1988 Notes to Basquiat: Australia Day re-enactment 1998 Gordon Bennett (1955 -2014) was an Australian artist of Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. In Gordon Bennett's splendidly savage painting Notes to Basquiat: Perfect teeth 2000, his bright, biting satire sets white teeth against black skin in a retro pop-culture parody; the word 'mono' in the centre of the canvas suggests the dominance of one colour in art and life, as well as implying what we might think of monotones (wherever found) and the assertion of a 'monoculture'. Open from 12 noon Anzac Day Closed Good Friday, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Queensland Art Gallery Board of Trustees 2023, See Kelly Gellatly, Citizen in the making: The art of Gordon Bennett, in, Stanley Place, South Brisbane, Queensland 4101 Australia. Fred Hoffman (2005) writes that, as an African American, Basquiat utilized political and social commentary in his artworks to reveal the racial and class systems of injustice in America (Mayer 2010). Notes to Basquiat: Unreasonable facsimile 1998 ), 31, Gordon Bennett was a painter of history and histories. Collection: The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Anchoring the composition is a confronting tortured skeletal figure . c: 182 x 182cm; 182 x 425cm (overall) Purchased 2019 with funds from the Neilson Foundation through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation Bennetts series works across both Australian and American His playful yet powerfully political artworks borrow images from other artists and mix and re-contextualise elements from Western and non-Western art history. Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999. Access more artwork lots and estimated & realized auction prices on MutualArt. Limited Edition Digital Works on Paper . signed and dated verso: G. Bennett 8 -03-2001. title, medium and dimensions inscribed verso: NOTES TO BASQUIAT: CUT THE CIRCLE II / Acrylic on linen / 5 x 6, 152 x 182.5 cm. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia of your drawing of the human figure. In the open letter to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bennett continues: To some, writing a letter to a person post-humously may seem very tacky and an attempt to gain some kind of attention, even 'steal' your 'crown'. . Basquiat and Diaz used it as a tool for making social commentary with poetic statements throughout the urban environment. verso on canvas, pencil "G Bennett 31-8-1999/ ". 1992 exhibition at the Whitney. revealed. That is not my intention, I have had 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. body to expose both pain and anguish and a common humanity. Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999 [picture] / Gordon Bennett 1999, Bennett, Gordon. 152.0 x 182.5 cm. Bennett, G., quoted in Gordon Bennett, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, p. 212. ibid.3. Bennett's series works across both Australian and American cultures, with wider historic references to the radical and the marginalised. 120 x 80cm Pollocks action painting is presented as a form of cultural appropriation of First Nations sand painting in Notes to Basquiat: Bird (2001), and those same active lines form the veins of Bloodlines (1993). 120 x 80cm In the wake of his untimely death less than two years ago, Gordon Bennett has been championed as a hero of Australian art who drew inspiration from Australias colonial past and postcolonial present to powerfully interrogate the role of language in structuring the ideologies that so determine our personal and cultural identities. Typically, this is the style of contemporary art associated with ideology critique, unveiling systems of discrimination and oppression like racism and sexism. It was another way for the artist to avoid being typecast simply as 'a professional Aborigine, which both misrepresents me and denies my upbringing and Scottish/English heritage'. author unknown. Write an article and join a growing community of more than 163,400 academics and researchers from 4,609 institutions. Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other First Nations people are advised that this catalogue contains names, recordings and images of deceased people and other content that may be culturally sensitive. 120 x 80cm 120 x 80cm (1990). This education resource accompanies the retrospective exhibition Gordon Bennett (2008) which showcased 85 works by this internationally acclaimed Australian artist.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. Gordon BennettNotes to Basquiat: Boogieman Blues 1999acrylic on linen182.5 x 182.5cmCollection: Private, Adelaide The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Read more: Representation itself is political. Gordon Bennett's series Notes to Basquiat is inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Haitian-American artist with Puerto-Rican heritage who came to prominence in the USA in the 1980s. Access more artwork lots and estimated & realized auction prices on MutualArt. 1999, Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999 [picture] / Gordon Bennett. His paintings are not expressionist. artist with Puerto-Rican heritage who came to prominence in the USA in Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia 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.
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