gordon bennett notes to basquiat
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. time, space and death. These works, like Basquiat's, use images of the > Notes to Basquiat SAVE ARTWORK FOLLOW ARTIST. 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 is inspired by the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the Haitian-American Art, Australian -- 20th century -- Pictorial works. View NOTES TO BASQUIAT (2001) By Bennett Gordon; synthetic polymer paint on linen; 152.0 x 182.5 cm ; Signed; . by Greg Tate which reads: "To be a race-identified race-refugee is to Change). 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. See opening hours Collection: Bendigo Art Gallery, Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. 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. In, In 1995 Bennett began making work under the name 'John Citizen'. His colourful and thought provoking conceptual paintings, prints, performance videos and installations draw on many different sources and styles. We will contact you if necessary. 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. Anchoring the composition is a confronting tortured skeletal figure . Please check your requests before visiting. Synthetic polymer paint on paper The diversity of Bennetts work is another striking feature. Synthetic polymer paint on paper McLean I., Probability, rap and coincidence: notes to Basquiat in Gordon Bennett: One Tense Moment (episode two), exhibition catalogue, Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 1999 . ^ Terry Smith, "Australia's Anxiety," History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett, Birmingham: Ikon Gallery, 1999, p. 17. Michel Basquiat and the "Dark" side of Hybridity" by Dick Hebdige, in Notes to Basquiat: Double vision2000Gordon BENNETT. These large scale history paintings of the 1990s are perhaps his best known works. 30 (illus. Again echoing Benjamin, Bennett draws a direct link between civilisation and barbarism, or here Enlightenment and suicide. 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. 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). He first became aware of his dual heritage when he was a young teenager. Outsider 1988 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. Tate, The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA) and Qantas are partners in an International Joint Acquisition Programme for contemporary Australian art. Inscription. Code #:14841 LOCATION: Redfern NSW . 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 cause as worthy and challenging as anti-racism, on the other hand, can provide material for a lifetime. Read more: His intention in the Notes to Basquiat series is to 'highlight the similarities and cross-connections of our shared experience as human beings living in separate worlds that each seek to exclude, objectify and dehumanise the black body and person'. Read more: I was also aware of his concern with western systems of representation and their oppressive effects. In his Welt series of paintings of the early 1990s, he painted over the created scarified surface of Jackson Pollock inspired drip paintings in matt black. author unknown. Abstraction (Citizen) 2011 Gordon Bennett Notes to Basquiat: Modern Art, Sherman Galleries, exh. Gordon Bennett explored indigenous past through his conceptual art, Retrieved August 24 2014, from, http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/gordon-bennett-explored-indigenous-past-through-his-conceptual-art-20140627-zsnql.htm. 152.0 x 188.5 cm. In his artists statement, composed as a letter to Basquiat, Bennett says: 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. and levels we can relate to each other as human beings in the world of 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. GORDON BENNETT born 1955 Notes to Basquiat: Hand of God 1999 synthetic polymer paint on linen signe. of the past, which is waiting to be found, and which, when found, will You lost your balance. Collection: The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Griffith University provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU. revealed. Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia John CitizenInterior (Tribal Rug) 2007acrylic on linen152 x 152cmCollection: Private, Brisbane The Estate of Gordon Bennett. signed, dated and inscribed with title verso: G Bennett 15-03-2001/ "NOTES TO BASQUIAT: MYTH OF THE WESTERN MAN". Written just three years after Bennett graduated from art school as a mature aged student, it gives a very clear sense of his early ambition and political purpose. Accordingly, in the present Notes to Basquiat: (Ab)original, 1999, the experience of race and life generally in the northern and southern hemispheres is both differentiated and conflated through Bennett's highly sophisticated mimicry of Basquiat's spontaneous urban style. Free entry, Find out what you need to know before visiting, Untitled (reference to Colin McCahon's 'Valley of the dry bones'), Myth of the Western man (White man's burden), Outsider/ insider: the art of Gordon Bennett, Mmoires vives: une histoire de l'art aborigine, Australian art and the Russian avant-garde. I was excited to find in the essay "Welcome to the Terrordome: Jean Bennett updates this image in Possession Island (Abstraction) by concealing the indigenous servant beneath the abstract and conceptual style of Kazimir Malevich. 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. 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. Dear Jean-Michel Basquiat, Gordon Bennett was a painter of history and histories. Bennetts painting Notes to Basquiat (2001) presents distinctly cultural conflict in contemporary Australian society. 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. Meet one of Australias most important contemporary artists, whose bold and playful works explore the politics of identity, Gordon BennettHome Dcor (Relative/Absolute) Flowers for Mathinna #2 1999acrylic on linen182.5 x 182.5cmCollection: Museum of Contemporary Art, purchased with funds provided by the MCA Foundation, 2012 The Estate of Gordon Bennett. signed and dated twice, and inscribed with title verso: 16-10-1999 / G Bennett / G Bennett 1610-1999 / NOTES TO BASQUIAT: MODERNITY / , Sutton Gallery, Melbourne (stamped on stretcher bar verso)pARTners Art Collective, Melbourne, acquired from the above in July 2007, Gordon Bennett Notes to Basquiat: One Tense Moment (episode two), Sherman Galleries, Sydney, 5 November 4 December 1999, cat. 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. Selected new items on display in Main Reading Room. Add to favourites. In the late 1990s, he embarked on two consecutive series of paintings, the Home Dcor series, and Notes to Basquiat. cultures, with wider historic references to the radical and the marginalised. 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. Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: To Dance on a Tightrope," 1998. private collection, Brisbane. We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism. Bennett's series works across both Australian and American cultures, with wider historic references to the radical and the marginalised. artist with Puerto-Rican heritage who came to prominence in the USA in 'Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett' celebrates the Queensland-based artist's globally recognised contribution to . Gordon Bennett (1955 -2014) was an Australian artist of Aboriginal and Anglo-Celtic descent. 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'. 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. To learn more about Copies Direct watch this. Estimate: $80,000 - $100,000. "A Short Note to Basquiat" 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 . Notes to Basquiat - Big Shoes - 2002. Galtung, J. Susan Best receives funding from the Australia Council for the Arts and the Australian Research Council . material existence, even though we may be separated by cultural context, The persona of John Citizen partly represents 'the Australian Mr Average', but is also a kind of disguise for Bennett. Bennett has reinterpreted their statement as a comment on the government's lack of apology to the Stolen Generations. 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. Its vintage Bennett: taking no prisoners, refusing not to be furious, making viewers confront racism in all its sly expressions. )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. 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'. 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? 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. Khaled Sabsabi, Look, 'The art that made me', pg. (2014). Eccles, J. Open daily This citation of Basquiat's work acts for Bennett as a mode of communication with the American artist who died in 1988. By quoting from a range of cultures and artistic styles, he questions and undermines colonial history and racist stereotypes. 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. we may be separated by cultural context, time, space and death. Bennett's art practice is interdisciplinary and encompasses painting, photography, printmaking, video, performance and installation. Bennett directly referenced the work of many other artists throughout his career, including Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Vincent Van Gogh. 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. Search the catalogue for collection items held by the National Library of Australia. 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. This conversation is manifest quite literally when Bennett drafts a letter to the - then already deceased - Basquiat, outlining his reasons for emulating his style. other as human beings in the world of material existence, even though Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia Collection: Paul Eliadis Collection of Contemporary Australian Art, Australia 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. In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition . Gordon Bennett. 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). 152: GORDON BENNETT. We respectfully advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that this site may include images, or intellectual property, that may be of a sensitive nature. 120 x 80cm Typically, this is the style of contemporary art associated with ideology critique, unveiling systems of discrimination and oppression like racism and sexism. On the opposite corner, however, a pair of heads labelled Caucasian and black/abo stare blankly into the void. 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. Inscriptions: "G. Bennett Nov. 1999 / Notes to Basquiat: Untitled"--On verso. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. that make us the individuals we are and the histories of shared experience Its 1955 Notes to Basquiat Untitled, 1999. Gordon Bennett. 16, Paris, 08 Dec 2013, 16 (colour illus.). Gordon Bennett Australia 10 August 1955 - 3 June 2014 Notes to Basquiat (City) Digital master available National Library of Australia; Request this item to view in the Library's reading rooms using your library card. (2010). Gordon Bennett Australia 1955-2014. 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. Here's looking at: Blue poles by Jackson Pollock. Sutton Galleries, Melbourne . 102: GORDON BENNETT born 1955 Notes to Basquiat. 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. 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. 120 x 80cm 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. history, culture and power. "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. The work Notes to Basquiat: Female Pelvis by Gordon Bennett was auctioned at Christies in Melbourne in November 2003. Notes to Basquiat: Famous boomerang 1998 Others are held in regional, state and national collections (National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, National Gallery of Victoria and the Art Gallery of New South Wales) as well as international collections including Wereldmuseum, Rotterdam.LUCIE REEVES-SMITH, Important Australian + International Fine Art, Gordon Bennett, managed by John Citizen Arts Pty Ltd. 152.0 x 182.5 cm. They reference the massacres of Aboriginal people in Myth of the Western man (White mans burden) (1992) and The nine ricochets (Fall down black fella, Jump up white fella (1990) and question the valorising of Captain Cook in Big Romantic Painting (Apotheosis of Captain Cook) (1993) and Possession Island (1991). 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. Australian artist Gordon Bennett's exhibition, a powerful attack on systemic racism, is called Be Polite. His artwork resist and debate racial stereotyping and is critical of Australias colonial history and postcolonial present. Gift of The Hon. This painting emanates from the 'Notes to Basquiat' series of paintings, where the artist takes appropriation to . Not only is art about political content, form is also at stake. The pop art inspired paintings of the Coloured People and Interiors series seem glossier and less political than Bennetts other work, but this is not the case. The textured surface references the colonial footprint of global black slavery. To learn more about how to request items watch this short online video . Bennett makes art that questions accepted versions of history, often taking historical artworks as his starting point. His sophisticated mimicry becomes two-fold in his quotation of Margaret Prestons woodcut design of a fish. Notes: Title from inscription on verso. Notes to Basquiat:(ab)Original 1998 Gordon Bennett. In Notes to Basquiat (Death of irony) 2002, Bennett astonishingly knits a homage to Basquiat with Islamic patterns and calligraphy into a coherent composition . 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. Aboriginal Australians -- Politics and government. Gordon BennettPossession Island (Abstraction) 1991oil and acrylic on canvas182 x 182cmCollection: Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and Tate, purchased jointly with funds provided by the Qantas Foundation, 2016 The Estate of Gordon Bennett. View Notes to Basquiat (1999) By Bennett Gordon; Synthetic polymer paint on linen; 182.5 x 182.5 cm. I guess it spoke to me of the traces of different experience and layers Gordon Bennett was an Indigenous Australian artist whose work primarily conveyed indigenous identity struggles, particularly through the subject of colonization and racial injustice. why. Looking through the exhibition, this internal language becomes insistently present as the resonances between works start to sound. 03 Jun 2014. Gordon Bennett, Retrieved August 24, 2014, from, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/04.html. Gordon Bennett. 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'. Oil and synthetic polymer paint on canvas Two parts: 162 x 260cm (overall) Of course, this price has nothing to do with the top prices that other . Bennett claims his identity was, shaped by the historical narratives of colonialism with all its romantic illusions and factual deletions (SMH 2014). Home Decor (After M Preston) No 3 2010 2010 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 182.5 x 152cm The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Certainly, the notebook quote reflects how Bennetts reputation has been cemented in Australian art history. It weaves . back the skin and flesh to reveal the innards, ribs and skeleton, the Gordon Bennett was one of the leading artists of his generation and received widespread recognition internationally for his striking . His three paintings titled. come from somewhere, have histories, and like everything which is historical, In its wake the pile of rubble grows skyward. 152.3 182.7 cm. You need Flash player 8+ and JavaScript enabled to view this video embedded. Read more: This included abstract expressionism and a dot aesthetic inspired by the Papunya Tula art movement of the Australian Western Desert. 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. Bennett, Gordon. 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.
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