Linear perspective is a system for organising visual information. Gordon Bennett 3. 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. This imagery alludes to the violent suppression of Indigenous people and culture in the nations history that was thrown into focus by the Bicentenary celebrations. Bennett establishes him as the focal point. I AM is borrowed from a well known art work, Victory over death 2, 1970 by New Zealand artist Colin McCahon (19191987) . Collect and find photographs of a wide variety of people of different ethnicities, cultures and physical appearances. Australian artist Gordon Bennett passed away on June 3, 2014, from natural causes at the age of 58. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Appropriation art is an established postmodernist strategy defined as: The direct duplication, copying or incorporation of an image (painting, photography, etc) by another artist who represents it in a different context, thus completely altering its meaning and questioning notions of originality and authenticity.1. Possession Island (1991), for example, presents shadowy renditions of Captain Cook and his party against a watery blue ground, overlayed with . Traditional ideas about an artists individual or signature style are further confounded in Bennetts art practice by the his appropriation or sampling of the distinctive styles of other artists, including Jackson Pollock (191256), Margaret Preston ( 18751963) and Piet Mondrian (18721944). Today a monument exists on the site commemorating his arrival. Performance with object for the expiation of guilt (Violence and grief remix) 1996, is a remix of an earlier video performance work, Performance with object for the expiation of guilt, 1995. . Consider what dates/events should be included in your timeline and why. What systems and/or conventions are used by each culture to represent three dimensional space? This image also translates to mean: In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. 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. 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. Bennett has continued to work in new ways with materials, techniques and images throughout his career, resisting any classification or confinement according to style. Such images have defined the nations settlement history for many generations of Australians. Explore a range of ideas and media within your work. They are strategically and prominently placed at the centre top of each panel, each radiating an aura of light created by white dots. 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. 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. 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. From the beginning of his career, John Citizen had had a complex relationship with Gordon Bennett. In a conceptual sense I was liberated from the binary prison of self and other; the wall had disintegrated but where was I? He had identified with the experience of the fair complexioned, African-American conceptual artist Adrian Piper, who wrote: Blacks like me are unwilling observers of the forms racism takes when racists believe there are no blacks present. Perhaps a re-writing of history? The pale, marble- like sculpted heads on the bed remind us of the Classical art and learning that has been privileged in Western culture above other forms of art and learning, including those associated with Indigenous cultures. His use of I AM emphasises this. Is this response informed by Bennetts work? Bennett not only used Basquiat images, but begins to paint in his style. Discuss with reference to the same works. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA). 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. How does this work compare with conventional self-portraits? Discuss in relation to selected artworks by Bennett that you believe reveal questions and complexities, rather than answers and simplicities. Born in Monto, Queensland, Bennett was a significant figure in contemporary Indigenous Australian art . It confronts the bigotry and discrimination suffered by Aborigines, using a rich visual language based in both Aboriginal and Western traditions. 1 0-5-30 j RED STAR Now 35 oft on all RED STARRED SIWFMIMUIS IliMMS . The grid and perspective lines are another recurring symbol in Bennetts work. His art attempts to depict the complexity of both cultural perspectives. The arms that extend in opposite directions across the two panels of the painting represent different perspectives on the impact of the Enlightenment. Kelly Gellatly 5, By the mid 1990s, Gordon Bennett came to feel he was in an untenable position. In Unassailable heroes (Sweet Damper) Famous since Captain Cook, 1996 the motifs and symbols suggest issues and questions related to history and representation that concern Bennett. These contrasting and complex meanings and ideas are not accidental. Citizens more recent work includes a series of interiors inspired by the decorator and home magazines that circulate widely in popular culture. 3 Baths. Possession Island 1992. 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. What typically Australian qualities are associated with these characters? 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 Possession Island (Abstraction), 1991 Oil and acrylic on canvas 71 7/10 71 7/10 in | 182 182 cm Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) The Rocks Get notifications for similar works Create Alert Want to sell a work by this artist? Brushing aside the tempting opportunity to ridicule many frames of reference in that sentence (I mean, don't get me . Research the significant dates/events referenced in Bennetts artworks, including Myth of the Western Man (White mans burden) 1992 for some ideas. . 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 I am from Self portrait (But I always wanted to be one of the good guys) is replaced with We all are. It is interesting to note that this same year was declared a period of mourning by Aboriginal people. (2nd Edition), What is Appropriation? The early 'Possession Island' (Abstraction))' 1991 was one choice. Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? . The central figure is based on a monoprint made from the artists body. For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, this was a time to mourn the devastating consequences of 200 years of colonisation. To the right of the canvas, Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952 is clearly referenced. 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. Bennett layered these two distinctly different artists with his own work work previously appropriated from yet another context. Gordon Bennett 3, Bennett married in 1977. Bennett has included the framed photograph in the panel, to the right of the painted figure. Appropriation was a tool that enabled him to open up and re-define stereotypes and bias. Within the Home dcor series Gordon Bennett escalates the sampling and quoting of other artists and works to develop a pastiche. Gordon Bennett 2. ww2dbase Henry Gordon Bennett was born in Balwyn, a suburb of Melbourne, near the close of the nineteenth century. Bennetts final year at art college in 1988 coincided with the Bicentenary of European settlement of Australia. Bellas Gallery. 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. 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. In the past Quadroon, was a socially acceptable term used to label Indigenous people as a way of establishing genetic heredity. The word DISPERSE was used by the colonisers to represent the killing of Aboriginal people. Basquiats signature crown hovers beneath a tag-like image of fire. Like many others at that time, Bennett was inspired by the work of the historian Henry Reynolds. Image credit: Gordon Bennett - Possession Island (1991). 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. The motivation behind the abstract paintings was complex but in part it reflects Bennetts ongoing concerns about issues related to the reception of his work. In Untitled, 1989 Bennett works with a selection of images associated with the familiar story of the discovery and settlement of Australia. It alludes to ownership and territory. Gordon Bennett 1. As far as pinning down who John Citizen actually was, Im not interested in doing that. Bennett continued to work in new ways with materials, techniques and images throughout his career. 148339 AK Gordon-Bennett-Rennen 1904 Cup Motorsport Usingen Weilburg Limburg. These paintings reflect Bennetts belief that after the Notes to Basquiat series of 2003, I had gone as far I could with the postcolonial project I was working through1. I found people were always confusing me as a person with the content of my work. 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. They absorb the flow of blood and recall the symbols often used in Aboriginal dot painting of the Western Desert to represent significant sites. This includes a focus on the role and power of language, including visual representations, in shaping identity, culture and history. Fundamentally, he deconstructed history to question the truth of the past. 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. It was no accident that Bennett used Pollocks Blue Poles: Number 11. Are these qualities perceived as positive? For example, Aboriginal deaths in custody was recognised as a significant issue. 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'. The focus on designer style in these interiors, the lack of human presence, and the flat areas of colour with simple black outline, creates a strange feeling of emptiness that sets them apart from Bennetts art. Six years after his death at the age of 58, his The final panel in the sequence of six images in Untitled is a black square. Suggest reasons for the similarities and differences that you find. He acknowledged that much of his work was autobiographical, but he emphasises that there was conceptual distance involved in his art making . Why might such an organisation purchase this painting? 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. They communicated important Christian stories to the congregation. John Citizen is an artist for our times: he reflects back to us citizens the white Australia of the postKeating era. He used his self as the vehicle to do so. Different members of the class could be assigned different cultural traditions to research and then prepare an illustrated presentation for the class. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007. Bennett compels the viewer to engage with and question the values and ideas of the artists he appropriated. Within the context of Australian art, he freed himself from being categorised solely as an Indigenous artist by creating an ongoing pop art-inspired alter ego named John Citizen. RM 2JEMG56 - A rare old photograph of the 1903 Gordon Bennett trophy race, Ireland - In the 'pits' attendants are cooling down an overheated vehicle with a bucket of water. How does this interpretation and analysis compare to your own? Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas; two parts, 162 x 260cm (overall). Bennett adopted several strategies to resist the narrow framework through which he as an artist and his work were viewed. His work also includes performance art, video, photography and printmaking. Calverts image becomes one of the layers of the painting. Symbols such as these highlight his awareness and use of visual images, forms and elements as signs. While 2007 was a brilliant year for Bennett's secondary market results, with eight works sold of which . 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. This approach involved a flattening of the picture surface and often the use of disparate visual elements or styles borrowed or copied from different sources. The simplicity of I AM suggests a universality of thought. Literally opening up this black skin of paint are the words cut me. 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 critical and aesthetic strategies of postmodernism have had significant impact on the development of his art practice. (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. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. Fri. 10-9, Sat. The grotesque also interested Bennett as a means of disrupting conventional ways of seeing and understanding. Identify other artists who have used dots in their work (ie. McCahon uses I AM to question notions of faith. Gordon Bennett 1. Felicity Allen, Gordon Bennett interviewed by Felicity Allen in the. The impact of colonisation on Aboriginal people and culture from this point was devastating. cat. What does this comment suggest to you about the purpose of Bennetts questioning of history? The pair of outstretched arms and the diagrammatic outline of a cross- like form in the central panel of Triptych: Requieum, Of grandeur, Empire, 1989 alludes to the figure of Christ crucified on the cross, a common subject in Christian art. With eyes closed, these heads appear as blind, mute and lifeless witnesses to the surrounding conflict and struggle. This image is based on a photograph by JW Lindt (1845 1926). Amidst the chaos and confusion of dots and slashes of colour he remains imprisoned by the grid, reduced to servitude. The men also paint their bodies in red, yellow, white and black, or in feather down stuck with human blood when they dress up, and make music with a didgeridoo. Sutton Gallery. Among these was the harrowing struggle for identity that ensued from the repression and denial of his Aboriginal heritage. Dots have been an important element in many of Bennetts paintings as a powerful signifier of Aboriginal art, for example Triptych: Requiem, Of grandeur, Empire. Gordon Bennett, Possession Island, 1991, oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums; Daniel Boyd, We Call Them . Bennett as a cultural outsider of both his Aboriginal and AngloCeltic heritage does not assume a simplistic interpretation of identity. John Citizen lets me take my Australian citizenship and cultural upbringing back from the netherworld of the imagined Other. This is evident in many of his works, including Outsider. The reality is, however, that I have never really had much choice; and I have been faced with my work not entering some collections on the grounds of it being not Aboriginal enough, to being asked to sell my work through stalls at cultural festivalsGordon Bennett 2. He serves as a counterpoint to Gordon Bennetts Other, and yet we are the one and the same. I needed to change direction at least for a while. He was born in New York, May 10th 1841 and died 4 days after his 77th Birthday in Beaulieu near Nizza/France. 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? Bennetts art explores and reflects his personal experiences. 'Bloodlines' The Constitution is being rethought with respect to Indigenous Australians, and treaty-making is on the agenda yet the Uluru Statement from the Heart was roundly ignored by the Federal Government. Image: Gordon Bennett, Australia 1955-2014, Possession Island, 1991. James Gordon Bennett 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. Roundels relating to symbols that denote significant sites in Aboriginal Western Desert dot painting also appear. 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. The Whitlam Government abolished the last remnants of the White Australia policy, established diplomatic relations with China and advocated Aboriginal land rights, to name just a few of these changes. Finally, Ive never been one to make art about art before. What is your personal interpretation of the abstract paintings? We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi-Wurrung People as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the NGV is built. Bennetts use of dots highlights the way Aboriginal cultural identity continues to be defined and confined by Western ideas of Aboriginality. There are many visual signs that recur throughout Bennetts artworks, including: Each of these signs brings significant meaning to Bennetts work and plays an important role in his investigation of issues and ideas related to identity, understanding and perception.