Est: AUD30 - AUD50. Gordon Bennett | NOTES TO BASQUIAT (2001) | MutualArt your book, a reference to Stuart Hall which I have included in my own See opening hours NOTES TO BASQUIAT: LIBERTY, 2000. synthetic polymer paint on linen. Again echoing Benjamin, Bennett draws a direct link between civilisation and barbarism, or here Enlightenment and suicide. 120 x 80cm Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999. Forms and styles of representation recur, transmute and metamorphose across his oeuvre in a dizzying fashion. In the late 1990s, he embarked on two consecutive series of paintings, the Home Dcor series, and Notes to Basquiat. Bennett directly referenced the work of many other artists throughout his career, including Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Vincent Van Gogh. In the open letter to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Bennett continues: To some, writing a letter to a person post-humously may seem very tacky and an attempt to gain some kind of attention, even 'steal' your 'crown'. About; About. Ultimately betraying Bennetts highly idiosyncratic vision however, is his characteristic engagement of the viewer here through his thesaurus inspired word-play designed to activate the complex web connecting sight, speech and thought, and thus highlights the links between history and meaning established in his oeuvre. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia To learn more about Copies Direct watch this. Write an article and join a growing community of more than 163,400 academics and researchers from 4,609 institutions. Tate, The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and Qantas are partners in an International Joint Acquisition Programme for contemporary Australian art. 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. A humanist at heart, Bennett created works which are grounded in personal experience and an authentic voice. We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism. He first became aware of his dual heritage when he was a young teenager. Professor of Art Theory and Fine Art, Griffith University. Mclean, I. 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. Both series used a conspicuous sampling of other artists work, re-contextualising these images into symbols of the wider exclusion and disenfranchisement of indigenous peoples. 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. Gift of The Hon. 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. His three paintings titled Possession Island are based on a 19th century etching by Samuel Calvert. GORDON BENNETT (b. . Australian art: Storylines - National Gallery of Australia Closed Good Friday & Christmas day On the opposite corner, however, a pair of heads labelled Caucasian and black/abo stare blankly into the void. 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. Explainer: what is postmodernism? 'One of the most important Australian artists of the late 20th century Synthetic polymer paint on paper Look more closely, however, you can see paintings by the 'real' Bennett displayed on the walls. Bennett claims his identity was, shaped by the historical narratives of colonialism with all its romantic illusions and factual deletions (SMH 2014). Gordon Bennett: Be Polite - Galleries West 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. Appropriation allowed Bennett to refer to both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal art, and situate his painting in a fluid area between these two overlapping forms of contemporary art. Synthetic polymer paint on paper Bennett directly referenced the work of many other artists throughout his career, including Jackson Pollock, Bennett makes art that questions accepted versions of history, often taking historical artworks as his starting point. View NOTES TO BASQUIAT (2001) By Bennett Gordon; synthetic polymer paint on linen; 152.0 x 182.5 cm ; Signed; . Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000. Australian artist Gordon Bennett's exhibition, a powerful attack on systemic racism, is called Be Polite. 152.3 182.7 cm. I feel I can understand Estimate: $80,000 - $100,000. by Greg Tate which reads: "To be a race-identified race-refugee is to born 1955. Gordon Bennett, Notes to Basquiat: Facial Bones, 1999, acylic on canvas, 51 x 51 cm Courtesy Sherman Galleries, Sydney. Impossible aims, such as this one, often underpin and drive the work of major artists; an achievable aim after all would be quickly satisfied. 120 x 80cm Art challenges and influences public opinion on conflict, yet more importantly it identifies injustices inherent to the cultural relationships and identities within a society. 'Nothing quite prepares you for the impact of this exhibition': Haring Basquiat at the NGV. Estimate: $40,000 - 50,000. This included abstract expressionism and a dot aesthetic inspired by the Papunya Tula art movement of the Australian Western Desert. Notes to Basquiat: Australia Day re-enactment 1998 03 Jun 2014. Synthetic polymer paint on paper Possession Island 1991 of history and culture - not an essence, but a positioning. time, space and death. These works, like Basquiat's, use images of the Bennett, Gordon. To learn more about how to request items watch this short online video . 152.0 x 188.5 cm. Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock. Gordon Bennett (19552014) worked for Telecom Australia before quitting his job at the age of thirty and enrolling in a fine arts degree at Queensland College of Art. The work Notes to Basquiat: Female Pelvis by Gordon Bennett was auctioned at Christies in Melbourne in November 2003. (1990). )Man + Space: Kwangju Biennale 2000, exhibition catalogue, Kwangju Biennale Foundation, South Korea, 2000, p. 273 (illus. 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. 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.. 120 x 80cm Aboriginal Australians -- Politics and government. Access more artwork lots and estimated & realized auction prices on MutualArt. Another quote in the Dick Hebdige essay I found I connected with was 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. Gordon Bennett, Retrieved August 24, 2014, from, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/04.html. In his recent book Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian Art (2016), art historian Ian McLean argues that anger is the consistent emotion expressed by Bennetts work. 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). 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.