Bennetts Notes to Basquiat collectively have had an extensive exhibition history, with a selection exhibited in the Kwangju Biennale 2000: Man + Space, Korea and the 9th Asia Pacific Triennial in 2001. Eccles, J. By peeling I guess it spoke to me of the traces past efforts to "explain" myself - it reads: "Cultural identities are Perhaps McLean reads Bennetts work in this way because anger at injustice is the emotional tone critical postmodernism typically adopts. 'One of the most important Australian artists of the late 20th century Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett - QAGOMA Blog Gordon Bennett Notes to Basquiat: Australia Day Re-enactment, 1999 Acrylic on linen 182.5 x 182.5cm + Gordon Bennett Home dcor (Preston + de Stijl = Citizen) Panorama, 1997 Acrylic on canvas 182.7 x 365.3cm National Gallery of Victoria + Gordon Bennett Possession Island . NOTES TO BASQUIAT: LIBERTY, 2000. synthetic polymer paint on linen. . Gordon Bennetts series Notes to Basquiat NOTES TO BASQUIAT: CUT THE CIRCLE II, 2001 - Deutscher and Hackett The persona of John Citizen partly represents 'the Australian Mr Average', but is also a kind of disguise for Bennett. Given that consistently expressed view, thinking about how his work addresses the cause of anti-racism is an apt prism through which to view the current exhibition. Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock. In the upper left-hand corner, a Margaret Preston stylised female figure tumbles, caught in a modernist lattice reminiscent of the work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian. Gordon Bennett Australia 10 August 1955 - 3 June 2014 Notes to Basquiat (City) A humanist at heart, Bennett created works which are grounded in personal experience and an authentic voice. Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. . Explainer: what is postmodernism? I was drawn once again to the semiotic Notes to Basquiat: one tense moment, Bellas Milani Gallery, Fortitude Valley, Jun1999Unknown, Biennale of Sydney 2000, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia, 26May200030Jul2000, Outsider/ insider: the art of Gordon Bennett, AAMU, Museum of contemporary Aboriginal art, Utrecht, 21Jun201209Dec2012, Mmoires vives: une histoire de l'art aborigine, Muse dAquitaine, Bordeaux, 16Oct201330Mar2014, Australian art and the Russian avant-garde, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 29Jul201729Oct2017, Carnivalesque, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 23Jun201828Oct2018, Jrme Bellay (Editor), Le Journal du Dimanche, 'L'art aborigne, la croise des mondes', pg. Possession Island 1991 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas and rope on wood Notes to Basquiat: Australia Day re-enactment 1998 Galtung (2009) explains in the article Cultural Violence how historical systems of racial oppression exist permanently within contemporary social consciousness. 'Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett' celebrates the Queensland-based artist's globally recognised contribution to . We are developing and evolving the new Collection Online and would love to hear what you would like to see developed next by answering these questions after you've finished using the website. Inscriptions: "G. Bennett Nov. 1999 / Notes to Basquiat: Untitled"--On verso. This echo is surely intended as Butler claims that Bennett's last decade of work (post-Notes to Basquiat, [after 2002]) resorted 'to an easy irony' - a 'cynical postmodernism' - as if he 'may be running out of inspiration.' However, farce does have its [2] lessons and perhaps speaks more truthfully to our age. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 290.5 x 179.5cm A critically and politically engaged artist, Bennett presents alternative historical narratives of Australia and of contemporary world events, creating provocative works that place identity politics front and centre. Bennett, G., quoted in Gordon Bennett, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, p. 212. ibid.3. These shapes are coloured red, yellow and black referencing the Aboriginal flag and loss of a culture. Bennett's view of a shared cultural and lived-experiences led to his 'Notes to Basquiat' series (1998-2002), inspired by the work of American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88). 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. Selected new items on display in Main Reading Room. "Notes to Basquiat: Untitled, 1999 appears to be referencing Basquiat's 'Samo', with the simple and strong text 'Sorry' recreated in a similar style with the familiar ironic copyright symbol. and the histories of shared experience and levels we can relate to each Sold at Auction: Gordon Bennett - Invaluable 120 x 80cm Copyright or permission restrictions may apply. 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. Notes to Basquiat - Big Shoes - Cooee Art 23-25, Sydney, May 2017-Jun 2017, 24 (colour illus.). 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. Gordon Bennett, Notes to Basquiat (The Death of Irony), 2002, National Gallery of Australia, . 5Unscripted: Language in Contemporary Australian Art, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 May 24 July, 2005, The Galleries, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 November 1999, p. 17McLean I., Probability, rap and coincidence: notes to Basquiat in Gordon Bennett: One Tense Moment (episode two), exhibition catalogue, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 1999, unpaginated (illus. 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. 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). is inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Haitian-American we may be separated by cultural context, time, space and death. 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 In 1999, the year this artwork was created, John Howard issued a 'statement of sincere regret' over the forced removal of Aboriginal children from their families, failing to make an official apology. In Australia, he would be placed in dialogue with key postmodernist artists such as Imants Tillers, Tracey Moffatt, and Juan Davila. 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. Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999 [picture] / Gordon Bennett | National The ideals of pure colour and form of early 20th century De Stjil abstraction appeared to Bennett as another form of exclusion. ; Signed; . Far from being grounded in mere "recovery" document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Gordon Bennett Notes to Basquiat (911) 2001 synthetic polymer paint on linen 182.5 x 304.0 cm, http://www.abc.net.au/arts/blog/arts-desk/Gordon-Bennett-artist-who-scaled-heights-of-artworld/default.htm, Psycho-social and psychological perspectives on religious violence (week4). Tate, The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and Qantas are partners in an International Joint Acquisition Programme for contemporary Australian art. Bennett has reinterpreted their statement as a comment on the government's lack of apology to the Stolen Generations. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia. University of Wollongong Research Online His three paintings titled Possession Island are based on a 19th century etching by Samuel Calvert. 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. His artwork resist and debate racial stereotyping and is critical of Australias colonial history and postcolonial present. Read more: Gordon Bennett - Art - LibGuides at Melbourne High School Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia His playful yet powerfully political artworks borrow images from other artists and mix and re-contextualise elements from Western and non-Western art history. Gordon Bennett. 1955 Paul Guest OAM QC under the Cultural Gifts Program 2018. Bennett makes art that questions accepted versions of history, often taking historical artworks as his starting point. )Israel, G., Senior Artwise 2: Visual Arts 11-12, Jacaranda Press, Milton, Queensland, 2003, (illus., front cover and p. 163)Murray Cree, L., Twenty: Sherman Galleries 1986-2006, Craftsman House / Thames and Hudson, Melbourne, 2006, p. 123 (illus. 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 . Indeed, perhaps more directly and explicitly than any other Australian artist, he engaged in the debate on republicanism, sovereignty and citizenship in an effort to highlight the plight of indigenous people not just locally, but internationally, who have become estranged as a result of colonialism. history, culture and power. Aboriginal Australians -- Politics and government. 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 Australia 1955-2014. Learn more. Get the best price for your artwork or collection. Gordon Bennett, Retrieved August 24, 2014, from, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/04.html. I think it seeks to go beyond the words on the paper into a world of metaphor, allegory, images and ideas in order to say something that may not be said with just words.3, 1. Closed Good Friday & Christmas day )Man + Space: Kwangju Biennale 2000, exhibition catalogue, Kwangju Biennale Foundation, South Korea, 2000, p. 273 (illus. 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'. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. The main reference for Notes to Basquiat (The Coming of the Light) is not Basquiat's imagery, but one of Bennett's early paintings, The Coming of the Light (1987). Sutton Galleries, Melbourne . Mayer, M. This painting emanates from the 'Notes to Basquiat' series of paintings, where the artist takes appropriation to . Synthetic polymer paint on paper Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia Outsider 1988 and levels we can relate to each other as human beings in the world of Cultural Violence, Journal of Peace Research, vol.27 (3), 291-305. reality embodied in the idea "that we are all alike underneath" is also 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. Basquiat, New York: Merrell Publishers. Notes to Basquiat: Kwijibo 1998 Haptic Painting (Explorer: The Inland Sea) 1993 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas / 177 x 265cm The Estate of Gordon Bennett, Collection: Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. I guess it spoke to me of the traces of different experience and layers 6 (stamped on stretcher bar verso)Kwangju Biennale 2000: Man + Space,Kwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall - Gallery 4, Korea, 29 March 7 June 2000Midwinter Masters: (Whats so funny bout) peace, love and understanding?, The Gallery, Bayside Arts and Cultural Centre, Melbourne, 22 June 18 August 2013 (illus. within, the narratives of the past.". Gordon Bennett | NOTES TO BASQUIAT (2001) | MutualArt Australian art: Storylines - National Gallery of Australia 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. Ewen McDonald (Editor), Biennale of Sydney 2000, Sydney, 2000, 39 (colour illus. Both artists reveal the historically fueled racist elements of western culture through their paintings. I feel I can understand Gordon Bennett: Be Polite - Galleries West Bennett died in 2014, aged 58. Limited Edition Digital Works on Paper . synthetic polymer paint on linen. 152: GORDON BENNETT. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall) NOTES TO BASQUIAT: MYTH OF THE WESTERN MAN, 2001. synthetic polymer paint on linen. Gordon Bennett: Illuminations or a season in hell | Artlink Magazine ^ Gordon Bennett in Gordon Bennett: Selected Writings, Power Publications and Griffith University Art Museum, 2020, p. 132. Est: AUD30 - AUD50. Anchoring the composition is a confronting tortured skeletal figure . Probability, Rap and coincidence Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art, 'Nothing quite prepares you for the impact of this exhibition': Haring Basquiat at the NGV, Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock. Looking through the exhibition, this internal language becomes insistently present as the resonances between works start to sound. Gordon Bennett - Notes to Basquiat: 911 - Search the Collection of your drawing of the human figure. I confess I used to think so, but seeing this exhibition has made me reconsider. Gordon Bennett - Notes to Basquiat: 911 - Search the Collection, National Gallery of Australia Pollocks vibrant skeins of paint can be tracked across a range of works: a section of Blue Poles as a background image in Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (2001). His sophisticated mimicry becomes two-fold in his quotation of Margaret Prestons woodcut design of a fish. He did not discover his Aboriginal heritage until around age 11 and always resisted being pigeonholed as an Aboriginal artist. Another quote in the Dick Hebdige essay I found I connected with was Brnice Geoffroy Schneiter, Le Journal des Arts, 'Art premier: La cration aborigne repense', pg. For example, the small painting of a black angel in the installation in the first room of the exhibition titled Psycho(d)rama (1990) recurs in Notes to Basquiat (Jackson Pollock and his Other) (2001). 38.0 x 53.5 cm . Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett
