)Man + Space: Kwangju Biennale 2000, exhibition catalogue, Kwangju Biennale Foundation, South Korea, 2000, p. 273 (illus. Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 183 x 152.3 x 3.2cm, The Estate of Gordon Bennett Private Collection, Adelaide, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.
University of Wollongong Research Online I confess I used to think so, but seeing this exhibition has made me reconsider. 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. the points of identification, or suture, which are made within the discourses
Inscriptions: "G. Bennett Nov. 1999 / Notes to Basquiat: Untitled"--On verso. 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. He writes of Bennett: The anger is never far from the surface of his work, though he was perplexed by the common perception of it as angry.. (2014). signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: G Bennett 15-03-2001/ "NOTES TO BASQUIAT: MYTH OF THE WESTERN MAN". Bennett's art practice is interdisciplinary and encompasses painting, photography, printmaking, video, performance and installation. 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. Anchoring the composition is a confronting tortured skeletal figure .
Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett - Art Almanac Synthetic polymer paint on canvas and rope on wood > Notes to Basquiat SAVE ARTWORK FOLLOW ARTIST. by Greg Tate which reads: "To be a race-identified race-refugee is to
they undergo constant transformation. 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. within, the narratives of the past.". 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. The ideals of pure colour and form of early 20th century De Stjil abstraction appeared to Bennett as another form of exclusion. His playful yet powerfully political artworks borrow images from other artists and mix and re-contextualise elements from Western and non-Western art history. ), 210. 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. (2014). We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism. 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. ; Signed; . 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. 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. Identities
synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 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. 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. Cultural Violence, Journal of Peace Research, vol.27 (3), 291-305. Representation itself is political. 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. 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. Bellas Gallery, Brisbane Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1999. Gordon Bennett. signed, dated and inscribed verso: G Bennett 3-9-1999 / NOTES TO BASQUIAT: (ab) original / [], Sherman Galleries, SydneyGene and Brian Sherman collection, Sydney, Gordon Bennett Notes to Basquiat: One Tense Moment (episode two), Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 5 November 4 December 1999, cat. 152.3 182.7 cm. 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.
Gordon Bennett - Notes to Basquiat: 911 - Search the Collection Notes to Basquiat (in the future art will not be boring) Bloodlines 1993 I guess it spoke to me of the traces of different experience and layers
Bennett was born in Monto, Queensland, in 1955 to an indigenous Australian mother and an Anglo Celtic migrant father. Forms and styles of representation recur, transmute and metamorphose across his oeuvre in a dizzying fashion. If I were to choose a single word to describe my underlying drive it would be freedom To be free we must be able to question the ways our own history defines us. 120 x 80cm
He first became aware of his dual heritage when he was a young teenager. we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves
03 Jun 2014. 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. . Gordon Bennett. revealed. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia
With the invitation to exhibit in a contemporary art fair at New Yorks Gramercy Hotel as catalyst, in 1998 Bennett embarked upon his celebrated Notes to Basquiat series paying homage to the work of Neo-Expressionist painter Jean-Michel Basquiat the first African American to receive international art world acclaim who also shared a similar preoccupation with semiotics and visual language as instruments of marginalisation. Yours Sincerely,
In 1994 I purchased a book on your work published as a catalogue to a
Gordon Bennett, Retrieved August 24, 2014, from, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/04.html. View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow. of history and culture - not an essence, but a positioning. He felt alienated by his Australian education and the representation of Aboriginal people in Western culture and as a result, began confronting the idea of identity in his own work. Dear Jean-Michel Basquiat,
. The Estate of Gordon Bennett, Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / Gallery of Modern Art. Mayer, M. 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 1995 Bennett began making work under the name 'John Citizen'.
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. Of course, this price has nothing to do with the top prices that other . GORDON BENNETT (1955 - 2014) NOTES TO BASQUIAT: CUT THE CIRCLE II, 2001 synthetic polymer paint on . This citation of Basquiat's work acts for Bennett as a mode of communication with the American artist who died in 1988. Aboriginal Australians -- Politics and government. Bennett, Gordon. 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. In the late 1990s, he embarked on two consecutive series of paintings, the Home Dcor series, and Notes to Basquiat. body to expose both pain and anguish and a common humanity. Georges Petitjean, Kitty Zijlmans and Ian McLean, Outsider/insider: the art of Gordon Bennett, Ghent, 2012, 50 (colour illus.). 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. 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". ), 31, Gordon Bennett was a painter of history and histories. Paul Guest OAM QC under the Cultural Gifts Program 2018. your book, a reference to Stuart Hall which I have included in my own
Please also be aware that you may see certain words or descriptions in this catalogue which reflect the authors attitude or that of the period in which the item was created and may now be considered offensive. 152: GORDON BENNETT. 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. 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. Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. Certainly, the notebook quote reflects how Bennetts reputation has been cemented in Australian art history. Gordon Bennetts series Notes to Basquiat
come from somewhere, have histories, and like everything which is historical,
Gordon Bennett | Notes to Basquiat (1999) | MutualArt I was excited to find in the essay "Welcome to the Terrordome: Jean
'Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett' celebrates the Queensland-based artist's globally recognised contribution to . Bennett, G., quoted in Gordon Bennett, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, p. 212. ibid.3.
Gordon Bennett, Notes to Basquiat: Totem Lesson 2 - Annette Larkin 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. (LogOut/ His sophisticated mimicry becomes two-fold in his quotation of Margaret Prestons woodcut design of a fish. Bennett has reinterpreted their statement as a comment on the government's lack of apology to the Stolen Generations. Sold for $44,400 (inc. BP) in Auction 3 - 29 November 2007, Melbourne. Unfinished Business can be seen until 21 March 2021. Typically, this is the style of contemporary art associated with ideology critique, unveiling systems of discrimination and oppression like racism and sexism. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia. In his artists statement, composed as a letter to Basquiat, Bennett says:
The original image shows explorer Captain James Cook raising the Union Jack flag in 1770, claiming ownership of the entire eastern coast of Australia in the name of the British Crown. 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). on exhibition catalogue front cover), Aulich, A., Visual Arts, The Melbourne Review, Melbourne, issue 21, July 2013, pp. 120 x 80cm
Notes to Basquiat: Double vision2000Gordon BENNETT. Medium. The works I have produced are notes, nothing more, to you and your works, posthumously yes, but importantly for me - living in the suburbs of Brisbane in the context of Australia and its colonial history, about as far away from New York as you can get - these are also notes to the people who knew you and your works, those who carry you with them in their memories and perhaps in their hearts.1. John Saxby (Editor), Look, 'The art that made me: Reg Mombassa', Sydney, Nov 2015, 13. By quoting from a range of cultures and artistic styles, he questions and undermines colonial history and racist stereotypes. A humanist at heart, Bennett created works which are grounded in personal experience and an authentic voice. Tate, The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and Qantas are partners in an International Joint Acquisition Programme for contemporary Australian art. The Notes to Basquiat: 911 series and the Camouflage series, which reflect on the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the war in Iraq respectively, highlight Bennett's global perspective. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. 152.0 x 182.5 cm. 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. About; About. born 1955. GORDON BENNETT born 1955 Notes to Basquiat: Hand of God 1999 synthetic polymer paint on linen signe. By peeling
But is this the tone Bennett actually adopts? Gordon Bennett was an Indigenous Australian artist whose work primarily conveyed indigenous identity struggles, particularly through the subject of colonization and racial injustice. Notes to Basquiat: Unreasonable facsimile 1998
Australian artist Gordon Bennett's exhibition, a powerful attack on systemic racism, is called Be Polite. 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'. He did not discover his Aboriginal heritage until around age 11 and always resisted being pigeonholed as an Aboriginal artist. 1992 exhibition at the Whitney. In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition . See opening hours Sonia Boyce explores her own sense of self in relation to media images of blackness and whiteness in the work From Tarzan to Rambo Get to know Theaster Gates. Gordon Bennett - Notes to Basquiat: 911 - Search the Collection, National Gallery of Australia View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow. (1999). Artists suggestions based on your preferences, Filter by media, style, movement, nationality and activity period, Overall performance of recent notable sales, Upcoming exhibitions at your preferred locations, Global snapshot, top performers and top lots, Charts on artist trends and performance over time, ready to export, Get your artworks appraised online in 72 hours or less by experienced IFAA accredited professionals. 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. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Bennett was unaware of his mother's . The price achieved of AUD 4,700 ( 2,835) was within expectations - the estimate range had previously been given by the auction house as AUD 4,000 - 5,000. (2014). of your drawing of the human figure. Jean-Michel Basquiat I salute you. In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition . (Ed.). Anchoring the composition is a confronting tortured skeletal figure, that embodies a shared stereotyping of blackness, yet more universally suggests a common humanity that beneath ones skin we are all alike underneath. 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? 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'.
Australian art: Storylines - National Gallery of Australia Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett 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
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. In Abstraction (Native), from the Abstraction series of 20102013, Bennett imposes the face of Australian politician and social activist Peter Garrett (formerly the front man of Australian rock band, Midnight Oil) onto an abstracted human figure. Learn more. 1 / 1 - Notes to Basquiat - Big Shoes - 2002. Access more artwork lots and estimated & realized auction prices on MutualArt. Due to major building activity, some collections are unavailable. I was drawn once again to the semiotic
You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video embedded. Eccles, J. and the histories of shared experience and levels we can relate to each
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). Art challenges and influences public opinion on conflict, yet more importantly it identifies injustices inherent to the cultural relationships and identities within a society. In, In 1995 Bennett began making work under the name 'John Citizen'. This is the third major survey show to consider the breadth of Bennetts work and should not be missed. 120 x 80cm
cultures, with wider historic references to the radical and the marginalised. Impossible aims, such as this one, often underpin and drive the work of major artists; an achievable aim after all would be quickly satisfied. Artlines | 1-2013 | Publisher: QAGOMA | Editor: Stephanie Kennard. Provenance. 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. The work Notes to Basquiat: Female Pelvis by Gordon Bennett was auctioned at Christies in Melbourne in November 2003. The former emerges from a Klansman conical shroud, the gears of his brain communicating directly with those of his subordinate comrade, like the mechanisms of a ventriloquists doll. 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'. 102: GORDON BENNETT born 1955 Notes to Basquiat. Bennetts series works across both Australian and American
His colourful and thought provoking conceptual paintings, prints, performance videos and installations draw on many different sources and styles. material existence, even though we may be separated by cultural context,
Professor of Art Theory and Fine Art, Griffith University. 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). This critical orientation is particularly evident in Bennetts history paintings, displayed in the third room of the exhibition. 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. 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. I feel I can understand
of different experience and layers that make us the individuals we are
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 task is the unfinished business referenced in the title of the show. Can I get copies of items from the Library? 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. He felt alienated by his Australian education and the representation of Aboriginal people in Western culture and as a result, began confronting the idea of identity in his own work. Its Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: To Dance on a Tightrope," 1998. private collection, Brisbane. and levels we can relate to each other as human beings in the world of
Bennett updates this image in Possession Island (Abstraction) by concealing the indigenous servant beneath the abstract and conceptual style of Kazimir Malevich. You lost your balance. Conceived as an open letter to Basquiat who died ten years earlier, the series appropriates the raw street style for which Basquiat became renowned in an attempt to communicate via the language of the New York context the similarities and crossconnections of our shared experience as human beings in separate worlds that each seek[s] to exclude, objectify and dehumanise the black body and person.1 Yet if Bennett borrows signature motifs from Basquiats oeuvre such as his use of lists and rap-like banter, he nevertheless imbues them with his own uniquely Australian symbolism.
NOTES TO BASQUIAT: MYTH OF THE WESTERN MAN, 2001. synthetic polymer paint on linen.
Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999 [picture] / Gordon Bennett | National Preston, though well-meaning in her quest to create a truly national artistic style, produced works that corrupted sacred aboriginal motifs, and presented aboriginal people as little more than stylised caricatures of the noble savage.In addressing these notes, the paintings, to the departed American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bennett expressed what he felt was histories of shared experience, an affinity felt through mutual exclusion from a euro-centric contemporary art world.
Probability, Rap and coincidence Notes to Basquiat (City) - AGSA Collection Notes to Basquiat - Big Shoes - 2002. Apologies -- Australia -- Pictorial works. Read more: Again echoing Benjamin, Bennett draws a direct link between civilisation and barbarism, or here Enlightenment and suicide. Michel Basquiat and the "Dark" side of Hybridity" by Dick Hebdige, in
Looking through the exhibition, this internal language becomes insistently present as the resonances between works start to sound. Art, Australian -- 20th century -- Pictorial works. Gordon Bennett. In its wake the pile of rubble grows skyward. Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999 [picture] / Gordon Bennett 1999, Bennett, Gordon. Such is reiterated by the works unfolding lines of text the same but different / different but the same a notion which not only reverberates throughout the entire series, but is similarly reflected in Bennetts knowing relationship to Basquiat and his practice. and painterly fields of your work and particularly to the layered lines
It is anything but. Read more: Bennett died in 2014, aged 58.
Gordon Bennett Neo-Expressionism | by Exposition Art Blog | Medium 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 1999, Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999 [picture] / Gordon Bennett.
Gordon Bennett | NOTES TO BASQUIAT (2001) | MutualArt 30 (illus.
Conflict, Violence, Peace & Art: Notes to Basquiat (2001) by Gordon 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). Get the best price for your artwork or collection. Paul Matharan and Arnaud Morvan, Mmoires vives: une histoire de l'art aborigine, Bordeaux, 2013, 220, 221 (colour illus.). Notes to Basquiat: Perfect Teeth comes from the important extended series, Notes to Basquiat, which was a major theme in Bennetts work throughout the 1990sa selection of works on paper from this series was included in The Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT3) in 1999. 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. 23-25, Sydney, May 2017-Jun 2017, 24 (colour illus.). history, culture and power.
Works | NGV | View Work I guess it spoke to me of the traces
11, Paris, Nov 2013-Dec 2013, 11 (colour illus.). ibid., p. 22, Important Australian + International Fine Art. 16, Paris, 08 Dec 2013, 16 (colour illus.). Notes to Basquiat: Australiana 1998
His three paintings titled. At first glance, paintings from the Interior series appear similar to the work of Patrick Caulfield and look like a brightly coloured pull-out from a lifestyle magazine. Change).
APT3 - Artist's Work - Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane Review: Unfinished Business: The art of Gordon Bennett, QAGOMA, Brisbane. 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. 109 Bennett's mimicry of Basquiat's style is not an attempt to be like Basquiat or to get an authentic street beat into his life. These large scale history paintings of the 1990s are perhaps his best known works. 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. Purchased with funds from the Foundation for the Historic Houses Trust, Museum of Sydney Appeal, 2007, Collection: Museum of Sydney, Sydney Living Museums, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014.