Medium. John CitizenInterior (Tribal Rug) 2007acrylic on linen152 x 152cmCollection: Private, Brisbane The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Gordon Bennett, "Notes to Basquiat: To Dance on a Tightrope," 1998. private collection, Brisbane. Bennett, G., quoted in Gordon Bennett, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 2007, p. 212. ibid.3. This conversation is manifest quite literally when Bennett drafts a letter to the - then already deceased - Basquiat, outlining his reasons for emulating his style. 120 x 80cm View upcoming auction estimates and receive personalized email alerts for the artists you follow. 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. In Australia, he would be placed in dialogue with key postmodernist artists such as Imants Tillers, Tracey Moffatt, and Juan Davila. Selected new items on display in Main Reading Room. 152.0 x 182.5 cm. GORDON BENNETT, (1955 - 2014) - NOTES TO BASQUIAT: (AB) ORIGINAL, 1999, synthetic polymer paint on linen DIMENSIONS: 182.5 - 182.5 cm SIGNED: signed, dated and inscribed v . 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. ), Notes to Basquiat (In The Future Art Will Not Be Boring), 1999, collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales, SydneyNotes to Basquiat (In the future everything will be as certain as it used to be) 1999, collection of The Wereldmuseum, RotterdamNotes to Basquiat: Double vision, 2000, collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, MelbourneNotes to Basquiat: Poet and muse, 2000, collection of the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 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. synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 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'. Gordon Bennett Neo-Expressionism | by Exposition Art Blog | Medium Moreover, Bennetts work is aesthetically similar to American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Gordon BennettAbstraction (Native) 2013acrylic on linen183 x 152.3cmCollection: Museum of Contemporary Art, purchased with funds provided by the MCA Foundation, 2013 The Estate of Gordon Bennett. We tend to think of him as a key figure in political or critical postmodernism. 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). 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. (LogOut/ Basquiat, New York: Merrell Publishers. 152.0 x 182.5 cm. Notes to Basquiat (in the future art will not be boring) 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". Gordon Bennett, Retrieved August 24, 2014, from, http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/04.html. Deliberately inconclusive original, archetype, manuscript, master, parent etc Notes to Basquiat: (Ab)original eloquently attests to the compelling possibilities offered by Bennetts art and its embodiment of a process being kept in play; and as he poignantly muses, Poetry doesnt seek closure on its meaning. 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. Home Decor (After M Preston) No 3 2010 2010 Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 182.5 x 152cm The Estate of Gordon Bennett. I confess I used to think so, but seeing this exhibition has made me reconsider. 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. Bennett has reinterpreted their statement as a comment on the government's lack of apology to the Stolen Generations. 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. 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. Closed Good Friday & Christmas day Code #:14841 LOCATION: Redfern NSW . Works | NGV | View Work 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). 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. Born in 1955 in Monto, Queensland, Bennett was unaware of his mother's . Galtung (2009) explains in the article Cultural Violence how historical systems of racial oppression exist permanently within contemporary social consciousness. and levels we can relate to each other as human beings in the world of 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'. why. 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. Gordon Bennett was a painter of history and histories. (2010). Notes to Basquiat: Famous boomerang 1998 Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and other First Nations people are advised that this catalogue contains names, recordings and images of deceased people and other content that may be culturally sensitive. 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. 120 x 80cm ibid., p. 22, Important Australian + International Fine Art. Gordon Bennetts series Notes to Basquiat Get the best price for your artwork or collection. Gordon Bennett 'Notes to Basquiat' (911) 2001 synthetic polymer paint on linen 182.5 x 304.0 cm. 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. 120 x 80cm Notes to Basquiat: Myth of The Western Man, 2001 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 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. 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. Underlying this dialogue with Basquiat Bennett's need to re-contextualise the issues that he has explored throughout his artistic career, confronting them within a global context. 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. 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. Estimate: $35,000 - $45,000. 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. Gordon Bennett. 1955 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'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. Its vintage Bennett: taking no prisoners, refusing not to be furious, making viewers confront racism in all its sly expressions. 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. He first became aware of his dual heritage when he was a young teenager. 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. His three paintings titled Possession Island are based on a 19th century etching by Samuel Calvert. 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. Collection: The Estate of Gordon Bennett. Gordon Bennett, Notes to Basquiat: Facial Bones, 1999, acylic on canvas, 51 x 51 cm Courtesy Sherman Galleries, Sydney. Access more artwork lots and estimated & realized auction prices on MutualArt. time, space and death. These works, like Basquiat's, use images of the Gordon BennettNotes to Basquiat: Boogieman Blues 1999acrylic on linen182.5 x 182.5cmCollection: Private, Adelaide The Estate of Gordon Bennett. 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. 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 hip-hop. 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'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). 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. NOTES TO BASQUIAT: LIBERTY, 2000. synthetic polymer paint on linen. APT3 - Artist's Work - Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane 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. back the skin and flesh to reveal the innards, ribs and skeleton, the 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. The art and legacy of Gordon Bennett (1955-2014), one of Australia's most influential contemporary artists, will be on show at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) from 7 November 2020 to 21 March 2021.