The Stripe series of abstract paintings represents a kind of freedom for me as an artist. These geometric forms also refer to the early 20th-century abstract artist Kazimir Malevich. 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. How do these systems/conventions reflect values and ideas important to that culture? Mondrian aspired to create a form of pure abstract art based on the grid and a controlled use of art elements, including primary colours. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991 Kevin Gilbert Christmas Eve in the Land of the Dispossessed, 1968; 1992 KEY ARTIST ONE- VERNON AH KEE Born 1967, Innisfail, Queensland. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 182 x 182 cm. Pollock becomes a catalyst for transformation. Bennett's work is held in over 100 public and private collections, including many major state institutions such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney; Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. The central figure is based on a monoprint made from the artists body. This influence is seen in the rhythmic movement of Bennetts Notes to Basquiat series. The critical and aesthetic strategies of postmodernism have had significant impact on the development of his art practice. Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, pp. Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) is one of Australia's most important contemporary artists, and his works have received increasing critical acclaim over the past years - culminating with his retrospective exhibition at the QAGOMA in Brisbane, 'Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett'. Possession Island (Abstraction), Gordon Bennett, 1991, Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas. 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. Discuss with reference to a range of artworks by Bennett. In many images of the crucifixion, including the painting by Veneziano illustrated, Mary Magdalene is kneeling at the foot of the cross washing and anointing Christs feet in an act of devotion . possession island 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. The grand Romantic landscapes of Western art were intended to inspire the viewer with their dramatic beauty and effects of illusion. Lists of words draw the viewer into a game of word association. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Gordon Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane before his unexpected death in 2014. cat. The images include historical footage of Indigenous people and details of some of Bennetts own paintings. Appropriation was a tool that enabled him to open up and re-define stereotypes and bias. Brainstorm ideas and meanings associated with these binary opposites and create a mindmap to show how they have influenced your perception and understanding of the world. How ideas might be encountered from different places and events interest him. It was a way forward for me. Like many of his own and earlier generations, Bennetts understanding of the nations history was partly shaped by the sort of images commonly found in history books. The distorted and exaggerated features of the form incorporate qualities that appear animal and human, male and female. Bloody handprints are stamped across the walls. Gordon Bennett, &The manifest toe, pp. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like Art Elements, Line, Colour and more. Gordon Bennett 2. Immersed within a White European culture, he was unaware of his Aboriginality until his early teens. 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. However, for Bennett, dot painting also became a powerful expression of the connections between nature and culture, which are integral to representation in Aboriginal art. It alludes to ownership and territory. In the context of the other panels, which are all figurative, this black square could be seen as an absence, and possibly a representation of the oppression of indigenous voices by history. 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 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. The dresser draw labelled self is closed while the drawers for history and culture are ajar. Gordon Bennetts Possession Island 1991, highlights the influence that visual images have on our understanding of history, and the way that visual images often reflect the values of the social / historical context in which they are made. In a real sense I was still living in the suburbs, and in a world where there were very real demands to be one thing or the other. Queensland-born Gordon Bennett was an artist who loved collapsing 'high' and 'low' art boundaries. What evidence can you see in this self-portrait of Bennett linking issues of personal identity with broader issues related to history and culture? I am that I am, Exodus 3:14 is God naming self. List some of your own qualities and attributes. Art Guide Australia January/February 2021 - Issuu The coming of the light also explores ideas, issues and questions related to the Enlightenment values central to colonialism. 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. This approach to his work resists any classification or confinement according to style. Throughout his career Bennett has used many different strategies to engage the viewer in his work. Theyre buried, and this is a way of bringing them back into memory, but remembered in a different way from the way that I was taught, looking at them from a different angle and looking at how they work, where they came from initially, and how these images still support contemporary stereotypes, etc. James Gordon Bennett Possession island gordon bennett Free Essays | Studymode Lindt created many photographic portraits of Aboriginal subjects. The powerful image/word I AM, while central, is accompanied by statements of opposite, I am light I am dark. Gordon Bennett | MCA Australia There is strong symbolism associated with the placement of the figure beneath the Roman triumphal arch. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall . In Malevichs work the black square is seen as having a strong and even spiritual presence. Such accolades and critical recognition are keenly sought by many artists. Buildings and planes collide. Do you agree? Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. After years of critiquing art-historical standards, Bennett has himself become the standard bearer. Bennett was concerned that his identity and work was seen as coming from a narrow framework. Media Releases - MCA, Qantas and Tate announce first series of Pinterest. 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. Strange to think of Gordon Bennett as an almost classical figure in contemporary Australian art. Gordon Bennett - Cooee Art Here he is concealed under blocks of black, red and yellow, the colours of the Aboriginal flag. How does this interpretation and analysis compare to your own? 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 If God cannot be contained, can humanity be contained by stereotypes and labels? How Enlightenment Thinkers Framed the Original 'Cancel Culture' as Five things to know about Gordon Bennett | Tate Gewerblich. Jackson Pollock is one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. New perspectives on familiar images and stories are presented. He used familiar and recognisable images that are part of an Australian consciousness to explore and question the meaning of these images. Who was Gordon Bennett? As a shy and inarticulate teenager my response to these derogatory opinions was silence, self-loathing and denial of my heritage. The left explodes with images of 9/11, the devastatingly unforgettable attacks in the United States, including New York. 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. The title of the work itself is unsettling. Gordon Bennett 1. 2,038 Sq. The grotesque also interested Bennett as a means of disrupting conventional ways of seeing and understanding. Choose a selfportrait by Gordon Bennett that interests you. . The Classical style and pose of the figure in the panel Empire, and the draped animal skins and weapons, reflect a stereotype of the noble savage that was widely influential in how people viewed Indigenous people in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Discover Gordon Bennett's Biography, Age, Height, Physical Stats, Dating/Affairs, Family and career updates. Queensland-born artist Gordon Bennett (1955-2014) was deeply engaged with questions of identity, perception and the construction of history, and made a profound and ongoing contribution to contemporary art in Australia and internationally. 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. 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. Do you agree? . 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. Physically, the kitsch Aboriginal motifs copied from Preston are trapped. These qualities expose some of the complications that arise from understandings built on binary opposites. He described his upbringing as overwhelmingly Euro-Australian, with never a word spoken about my Aboriginal heritage. Like words, visual images, forms and elements are powerful signifiers of meaning. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, this was a time to mourn the devastating consequences of 200 years of colonisation. What key themes and ideas are explored in the book/film? He and his partner bought a house and settled in the suburbs of Brisbane like other young couples. But this approach is central to the way many people describe and analyse his work. Self portrait (Ancestor figures), 1992 deals with broader issues of cultural identity as well as personal identity. 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. Get this The Morning News page for free from Friday, July 7, 1972 Q90 wSu Fairfax Shopping Center Doily 10-6. 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. Mixing of pure blood with European blood was feared by Europeans, authenticity was at risk and identity diluted. Why might such an organisation purchase this painting? Altarpiece paintings traditionally occupied a central position in a church. In Altered body print (Shadow figure howling at the moon) Bennett focuses more explicitly on binary opposites and the associations they trigger. Bennetts earliest works, including The coming of the light, 1987, reflect a raw and expressive style. ). Preston envisioned the creation of an Australian aesthetic. 'Gordon Bennett!' - meaning and origin. - Phrasefinder No easy answers in the art of Gordon Bennett Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). In the Home dcorseries Bennett used gridded compositions that refer to the paintings of Dutch artistPiet Mondrian (1872 1944). 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. | Tate Images. The emphasis on making art about art which was the focus of his non-representational abstract paintings, contrasts clearly with the focus on social critique that was integral to Bennetts earlier work, and was intended also to make people aware that I am an artist first and not a professional Aborigine.2 In this respect, Bennetts non representational abstract works, despite their overt emphasis on visual concerns, may be seen as reflecting his engagement with questions of identity, knowledge and perception. Its like images become part of the Australian unconscious. 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. For example, the association between the colour red and blood or violence is strongly influenced by the many representations and descriptions we are exposed to in Western culture, in which blood or violence is described/represented using the colour red. 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. In the past Quadroon, was a socially acceptable term used to label Indigenous people as a way of establishing genetic heredity. The installation is filled with images of his family and Constructivist-style drawings made by the artist. exploration: Captain James Cook, Australia landing 1770, Calvert, Samuel, etching, Captain Cook Taking Possession of the Australian Continent on Behalf of the British Crown, AD 1770. 2 February 2021. Bennett has often used dots in his artworks as part of his investigation of issues of identity, and history. Van Goghs original bedroom evokes a feeling of peace and harmony. The grotesque in art is generally associated with bizarre, ugly or disturbing imagery. Unfinished Business The Art of Gordon Bennett - Queensland Art Gallery 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. Sell with Artsy Artist Series Portraits of Artists and Sculptors 113 available This image is based on a photograph by JW Lindt (1845 1926). Kelly Gellatly 1. She attempted to create works that reflected a sense of national identity by incorporating Aboriginal motifs and colours in her work. Their confidence was rewarded when Possession Island 1991, a triptych in which each panel measured 162 x 130 cm, sold for $384,000. 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. Black angels replace traditional white cherubs. 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. He quotes directly from this image, which is in fact a copy of a copy, as Samuel Calvert copied this image of Captain Cook landing in Botany Bay from an image by Gilfillan, which is now lost. He found this liberating. Gordon Bennett arrived on Christmas Island in 1979 to take a post as leader of the Union of Christmas Island Workers. Bennett attempts to destroy the stereotypes to question notions of identity. 85 ides de GORDON BENNETT | toile de lin, basquiat, art australien Blood is a potent symbol and has historically been a measure of Aboriginality. At art college Bennett discovered how Australian identity was built on a subjective writing of history. These joint acquisitions by MCA and Tate include two large video installations, one by Susan Norrie (Transit 2011) and another by Vernon Ah Kee (tall man 2010), two paintings by Gordon Bennett (Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 and Number Nine 2008) and an artist book by Judy Watson consisting of sixteen etchings with chine coll (a . He painted his most famous work, Guernica (1937), in response to the Spanish Civil War; the totemic grisaille canvas remains a definitive work of anti-war art. 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. Mondrian, a Dutch De Stijl artist and a Theosophist, used art to search empirical truths and their source. The grid, with its characteristic ordered mathematical structure, appears in a range of Bennetts artworks in a variety of forms. He used strategies such as deconstruction and appropriation to present audiences with new ways of viewing and understanding the images and narratives that have shaped the nations history and culture. People tend to focus on the emotional aspect rather than the conceptual when interpreting my work, and that bothers me. 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. 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. For Mondrian the grid became the essence of all forms. Gordon Bennett Possession Island (Abstraction) 1991 Oil paint and acrylic paint on canvas 1 843 x 1845 mm Tate and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, purchased jointly with funds provided by the Qantas Foundation 2016 Estate of Gordon Bennett CZ: A lot of the featured artists have also created work since 1992. * *Collection: Museum of Sydney on the site of the first Government House, Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales. The grid and perspective lines are another recurring symbol in Bennetts work. 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. 'Possession Island (Abstraction)', Gordon Bennett, 1991 | Tate While Bennetts art is grounded in his personal struggle for identity as an Australian of Aboriginal and AngloCeltic descent, it presents and examines a broad range of philosophical questions related to the construction of identity, perception and knowledge. The Politics of Art - Law, Literature and Humanities Association of 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. It was upon entering the workforce that I really learnt how low the general opinion of Aboriginal people was. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Roundels relating to symbols that denote significant sites in Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting also appear. James Gordon Bennett was born on a farm near Enzie, around three miles from Buckie, in 1795 but chose to follow a friend to North America when aged 24 with just 5 in his pocket. These images are fused and overlapped in a dynamic composition underpinned by Mondrian-style grids. 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. Bennett compels the viewer to engage with and question the values and ideas of the artists he appropriated. I AM is borrowed from a well known art work, Victory over death 2, 1970 by New Zealand artist Colin McCahon (19191987) . 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. 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. LibGuides: Studio Arts Year 11 (Units 1&2): Art Appropriation Consider what dates/events should be included in your timeline and why. 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. From 2003 Bennett worked on a series of non-representational abstract paintings that mark another significant shift in his practice. 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 repression of Aboriginal heritage that Bennett experienced was reinforced by an education system and society dominated by a history built on the belief in Australia as terra nullius. What aspects of Bennetts works might viewers focus on as emotional? The impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people and culture from this point was devastating. 3233, Gordon Bennett, The manifest toe, p. 33, Gordon Bennett & Chris McAuliffe, Interview with Gordon Bennett in Rex Bulter (Ed.) Possession Island (1991), for example, presents shadowy renditions of Captain Cook and his party against a watery blue ground, overlayed with . The Other is clearly marked out as not only different but by necessity inferior. The early 'Possession Island' (Abstraction))' 1991 was one choice. Our understanding of the meanings associated with visual signs is linked to cultural codes, conventions and experience. What does this interpretation add to your understanding of the artwork? Gordon Bennett . 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. Possession Island (Abstraction), Gordon Bennett, 1991 | Tate Images It is interesting to note that this same year was declared a period of mourning by Aboriginal people. Collect and find photographs of a wide variety of people of different ethnicities, cultures and physical appearances. Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings - Power Publications 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. Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. That was to be the extent of my formal education on Aborigines and Aboriginal culture until Art College. In European tradition these are seen as a means of mapping and defining space. These images, forever forged in our minds, are boldly depicted in Basquiats graffiti- like style. 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. They communicated important Christian stories to the congregation. Since 1992 Bennett was involved in an ongoing non-performance by refusing to participate in public lecture programs in Australia. Bennett was interested in the way language and images construct identity and history, and the way this language controls and creates meaning. Bennetts interest in adopting a strategy of intervention and disturbance in the field of representation manifests in many different ways in his art. He serves as a counterpoint to Gordon Bennetts Other, and yet we are the one and the same. Bennetts art explores and reflects his personal experiences. His art attempts to depict the complexity of both cultural perspectives. His use of I AM emphasises this. The graphic detail in these images, including mutilated, tortured bodies, continue to confront viewers today with the realities of human behaviour and suffering in war. marking the first car ever to touch the island's soil. The I am from Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys) is replaced with We all are. Experiment with enhancing or diminishing different layers to create a distinctive character. His bold and humane art challenged racial stereotypes and provoked critical reflection on Australia's official history and national identity.