(2nd Edition), What is Appropriation? Australian politics is fraught yet the Australian public is disengaged. 2 February 2021. I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. Today. Home Dcor (Algebra) Ocean, 1998 synthesises the work of Piet Mondrian(18721944), Margaret Preston (18751963) and later in the series, JeanMichel Basquiat(19601988) among others. Western art has a long tradition of creating an illusion of three- dimensional space on a flat surface. The title of the work itself is unsettling. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. His identity must remain fluid. In 1989, a year after graduating from art college, his work was included in the high profile Australian Perspect a exhibition of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. 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. The purchase of this artwork by the Whitlam Labor Government (19731975) was fraught with controversy. These act as disturbances. 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. . Opens in a new window or tab. Do these qualities reflect the reality of what it means to be Australian (ie. Pollock becomes a catalyst for transformation. The images include historical footage of Indigenous people and details of some of Bennetts own paintings. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991. The circular forms in the sky are inspired by the brilliant bursts of light in van Goghs Starry night. 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 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 Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. Pollock was influenced by Navaho sand paintings, which were created on the ground. . He and his partner bought a house and settled in the suburbs of Brisbane like other young couples. New perspectives on familiar images and stories are presented. Do you agree? McCahon uses I AM to question notions of faith. 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. 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. The Politics of Art. I did drawings of tools and weapons in my project book, just like all the other children, and like them I also wrote in my books that each Aboriginal family had their own hut, that men hunt kangaroos, possums and emus; that women collect seeds, eggs, fruit and yams. Scan these into the computer using a photographic software package like Photoshop. Bennett as a cultural outsider of both his Aboriginal and AngloCeltic heritage does not assume a simplistic interpretation of identity. It is at once a name revealed and something like the refusal of a name. More broadly, it recalls the lives of many young Aboriginal women who followed a similar destiny. 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. It was no accident that Bennett used this event to question the way history is written and interpreted. Bennett repositions the subject of the painting in other ways too, by including black footprints that diminish into the background of the composition. 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. Gordon Bennett 1. Find examples of the work of these artists. There are a number of reasons why I began painting abstract paintings that focused on overt visual phenomena, as opposed to explicit visual content. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. . Identity is fixed and self is understood in the context of words such as Abo, Boong, Coon and Darkie . The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Gordon Bennett explores these ideas in Self portrait: Interior/ Exterior , 1992. Fri. 10-9, Sat. 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 Gebraucht | Gewerblich. * 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 Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. The work is a copy of a copy of a copy. This influence is seen in the rhythmic movement of Bennetts Notes to Basquiat series. 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. Fundamentally, he deconstructed history to question the truth of the past. The I am from Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys) is replaced with We all are. Would you include work by Gordon Bennett in a text book on Australian history. 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. Amidst the chaos and confusion of dots and slashes of colour he remains imprisoned by the grid, reduced to servitude. The critical and aesthetic strategies of postmodernism have had significant impact on the development of his art practice. The Bicentenary celebrations triggered increased activism, protests and public debate related to Indigenous issues. 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. Discuss with reference to Possession Island. 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. 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. 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. What does Bennetts goal for his work suggest to you about how he views the role of art? The arms that extend in opposite directions across the two panels of the painting represent different perspectives on the impact of the Enlightenment. But this approach is central to the way many people describe and analyse his work. This central motif governs the composition which, similar to Calverts original etching upon which the painting is based, is largely reduced to a schema of black and white forms. This education resource accompanies the retrospective exhibition Gordon Bennett (2008) which showcased 85 works by this internationally acclaimed Australian artist. The other was 'Number . Pinterest. There is strong symbolism associated with the placement of the figure beneath the Roman triumphal arch. Dates/events to consider and research include the 1967 Australian Referendum, the 1992 Mabo and 1996 Wik Native Title court cases, Paul Keatings 1992 Redfern address. Consider what dates/events should be included in your timeline and why. This culminated in the Notes to Basquiat series in 2003. (Supplied: CGM Communications) In 1989, Bennett, Mr Lai and five other executives started Phosphate Resources Limited and got the locals to invest, raising about $3.4 million. It speaks of colonial violence and the consequences of being on the 'wrong' side of history, purchased in 2019, this powerful and sobering work is a major acquisition for the QAGOMA Collection. In the past Quadroon, was a socially acceptable term used to label Indigenous people as a way of establishing genetic heredity. 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. 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. Bennett adopted several strategies to resist the narrow framework through which he as an artist and his work were viewed. 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. 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. A gush of blood red paint shoots into the sky from his body. Discover Gordon Bennett's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. He used his self as the vehicle to do so. His joy . They absorb the flow of blood and recall the symbols often used in Aboriginal dot painting of the Western Desert to represent significant sites. But in Bennetts painting disparate diagrams, symbols and images disrupt the illusion, presenting the landscape as a site where many ideas and viewpoints compete. This is similar to the way a Pointillist painting can only be seen effectively from a distance to bring the image into focus. 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. Aim to use a variety of strategies in your work to engage the viewer in the issues and questions you are interested in exploring in relation to these binary opposites. An orphan from a very young age, she was raised on Cherbourg Aboriginal Mission in Queensland, and later trained as a domestic at Singleton. This is the second of two works entitled Possession Island that Bennett painted following Australias bicentennial celebrations in 1988. Why? However, Bennetts ongoing investigation into questions of identity, perception and knowledge, has involved a range of subjects drawn from both history and contemporary culture, and both national and international contexts. Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums The Estate of Gordon Bennett Lists of words draw the viewer into a game of word association. Reynolds wrote books and articles about the history of Australian settlement as a story of invasion and genocide. Acutely aware of the frame, I graduated as a straight honours student of fine art to find myself positioned and contained by the language of primitivism as an Urban Aboriginal 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. ww2dbase Henry Gordon Bennett was born in Balwyn, a suburb of Melbourne, near the close of the nineteenth century. 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. 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. Include a selection of relevant artworks by Gordon Bennett to illustrate your timeline. In just three generations, that heritage has been lost to me. Basquiats signature crown hovers beneath a tag-like image of fire. 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. Create an illustrated and annotated timeline of the history of Australia since settlement. 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. Van Goghs original bedroom evokes a feeling of peace and harmony. One of the most heroic and well-known images of Australias past is Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay in 1770. Thousands of dots fill the canvas. cat. The works I have produced are notes, nothing more, to you and your work Gordon Bennett 1. This emphasises the works formal qualities and discourages any narrative or symbolic reading of it. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island (1991)*. 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. John Citizen was a work in progress that allows me to follow other streams of thought in my practice. He gave several sponsorships in these fields, notably the Isle of Man Bennett Trophy races of 1900 to 1905 (subsequently a trials course on the island was named after him). However, he offers more than one interpretation of the grids use, which is indicated by the sampling of works by Australian artist Margaret Preston . . These signs can also be read as evidence that disputes the claim that Australia was discovered terra nullius or nobodys land. Research the significant dates/events referenced in Bennetts artworks, including Myth of the Western Man (White mans burden) 1992 for some ideas. Gordon Bennett's painting Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 is based on an image of Captain Cook claiming the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. The headless figure of the Aboriginal man has an animated, spectre- like presence that haunts the scene. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. Explore a range of ideas and media within your work. The linear diagram that frames the kneeling figure of Bennetts mother in the central panel of Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire, and the diagrams in the lower sections of the two side panels, are typical of illustrations that explain the principles of linear perspective. Such images have defined the nations settlement history for many generations of Australians. The strategy of word association subverts the values and meaning traditionally associated with the image. 20-21, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, p. 33, Ian McLean, Towards an Australian postcolonial art in Ian McLean & Gordon Bennett, The Art of Gordon Bennett, Craftsman House, 1996, p. 99, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe in The Art of Gordon Bennett, p. 22, Zara Stanhope, How do you think it feels? in Three Colours , Gordon Bennett & Peter Robinson (exh. The distorted and exaggerated features of the form incorporate qualities that appear animal and human, male and female. Bennett used Blue Poles to recall this period of change. Other aspects of the image, including the flat, stylised shapes of the head, reflect connections to both Western abstract art and Indigenous art traditions. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, this was a time to mourn the devastating consequences of 200 years of colonisation. Bennett compels the viewer to engage with and question the values and ideas of the artists he appropriated. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Gordon Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane before his unexpected death in 2014. Bennetts use of dots highlights the way Aboriginal cultural identity continues to be defined and confined by Western ideas of Aboriginality. Investigate the theories and ideas associated with anthropology, ethnography and phrenology. Immersed within a White European culture, he was unaware of his Aboriginality until his early teens. Gordon Bennett 1. While 2007 was a brilliant year for Bennett's secondary market results, with eight works sold of which . This work reflects our contemporary obsession with creating the perfect home filled with the latest must have designer style and material items. possession island Discuss different approaches/ideas evident in the way each artist uses dots in their work. The incorporation of Blue Poles calls to mind an era of great reform in Australian politics. 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. His father, born in Scotland in 1795, emigrated to the US to become a journalist and subsequently founded the 'New York Herald' in 1835. 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. See more ideas about artist, art, straight photography. Bennett lodges this image in layers of dots and slashes of red and yellow paint that refer to other artists and images. This painting is based on Samuel Calverts 19th-century etching Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent on Behalf of the British Crown, AD 1770, itself a copy of a lost painting by John Alexander Gilfillan. Bennett used 9/11 and its global impact three months after the event as the stage for his discourse on cultural identity. Bennetts final year at art college in 1988 coincided with the Bicentenary of European settlement of Australia. Discuss with reference to one or more works by Bennett. After 2003 he moved away from figurative language to work in an abstract idiom (see Number Nine 2008, Tate T15515). Bennetts art practice was interdisciplinary and encompasses painting, photography, printmaking, video, performance and installation. 3 Baths. Another reason was to make people aware that I am an artist first and not a professional Aborigine. On each corner of the grid are the letters A B C D . In the Home dcorseries Bennett used gridded compositions that refer to the paintings of Dutch artistPiet Mondrian (1872 1944). But, in the late 1990s, some residents . After working in various trades in his early life, Bennett enrolled as a matureage student at Queensland College of Art in 1986 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) degree in 1988. Jackson Pollock is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Identify other artists who have used dots in their work (ie. 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. These questions include how traditional characterisations of light and darkness have influenced perceptions and experience of race and culture. The powerful image/word I AM, while central, is accompanied by statements of opposite, I am light I am dark. Research references to existing images in Gordon Bennetts The nine richochets (Fall down black fella, jump up white fella) 1990. Issues ly explored in an Australian context are now examined in an international context. Early life [ edit] 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? The grid and perspective lines are another recurring symbol in Bennetts work. The background colours and features of the landscape in each panel of Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire suggest a vast Australian desert . 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. Discuss in relation to selected artworks by Bennett that you believe reveal questions and complexities, rather than answers and simplicities. 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. Explain how these images might have influenced perceptions of Australian identity? Picassos sizable oeuvre grew to include over 20,000 paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures,ceramics, theater sets, and costume designs. The titles of Bennetts artworks reflect the artists awareness of the power of words/language to suggest meaning. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. It is a monument that also unintentionally signals the subsequent dispossession of Aboriginal people from their homeland. Gordon Bennett 1. The coming of the light also explores ideas, issues and questions related to the Enlightenment values central to colonialism. 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. An understanding of self in the context of family is not enough. Underlying Bennetts admiration for Basquiat was the need to re- contextualise the issues that he had explored throughout his career as an artist. 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. The purer the bloodlines, the more Aboriginal you were. The resource provides frameworks for exploring key issues and ideas in Bennetts art practice. Often describing his own practice of borrowing images as quoting, Bennett re-contextualised existing images to challenge the viewer to question and see alternative perspectives. The viewer does not confront the artist, but self. The representation of Aborigines has been reduced to caricature. Research other artists who use appropriation and select an artist whose work interests you. In this way, Bennett effectively exposes and questions the constructed and value-laden nature of language and history, and how they shape our understanding of the world. What does this comment suggest to you about the purpose of Bennetts questioning of history? Clear visual divisions are created with distinct black areas as well as large white areas. 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. The installation is filled with images of his family and Constructivist-style drawings made by the artist. It is open to self revelation, self redemption and a myriad of rich images of self that can be built upon. For Mondrian the grid became the essence of all forms. 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. The vanishing point may also be understood as the point from which these lines extend outward past the picture plane to include the viewer in the pictorial space, positioned as observer of a self contained harmonious whole. I didnt go to art college to graduate as an Aboriginal Artist. It alludes to ownership and territory. As a self- portrait, the artist seems to be present everywhere within the installation but is in fact nowhere. 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. Discuss with reference to examples in at least two works by Bennett. As one of the dispossessed within this biased history, he claims that his only tool to combat this bias was the art of mimicry. At the time the A$ 1.3 million purchase price was the highest ever paid for a piece of modern art within Australia and the U.S. Australia for His Majesty King George III. Bennett handed over command of his division and left the island. Buildings and planes collide. In Untitled, 1989 Bennett works with a selection of images associated with the familiar story of the discovery and settlement of Australia. His use of I AM emphasises this. I needed to change direction at least for a while. Comparisons between Basquiat and Bennett often focus on the artists similar backgrounds and experiences. 3 Beds. His "history painting," as he called his large-scale canvases at the time, provoked a radical revision of Australia's past, fueling the meteoric rise of a career that left an indelible mark on Australian art .