Gordon Bennett (artist)

Born in Monto, Queensland, in 1955, of Anglo-Celtic and Aboriginal ancestry,{{cite web

| title = Gordon Bennett Introduction

|work= Schools resources

| publisher = National Gallery of Victoria

| url = http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/gordonbennett/education/intro.html

| access-date = 15 June 2014

}} Gordon Bennett grew up in Victoria from the age of four, when his family moved back to Queensland, to the town of Nambour.{{cite news|url=http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/27/1082831550074.html|title=Bennett puts on brave face|last=Coslovich|first=Gabriella|date=28 April 2004|work=The Age|access-date=15 June 2014}} He attended Nambour State High School. He left school at fifteen and worked in a variety of trades before undertaking formal art studies at the Queensland College of Art, Brisbane between 1986 and 1988.{{cite web|url=https://www.daao.org.au/bio/gordon-bennett/biography/|title=Gordon Bennett|date=2014|publisher=Design & Art Australia Online|access-date=15 June 2014}}

Some of his work is about what he saw when he was young. His 1991 painting Nine Ricochets won the prestigious Moët & Chandon Australian Art Fellowship, and he rapidly established himself as a leading figure in the Australian art world. Bennett lived and worked in Brisbane, where he created paintings, prints and worked in multi-media.

In 2004, Bennett, together with Peter Robinson, had a two-person exhibition Three Colours, which showed at several Victorian art galleries including Heide Museum of Modern Art, Shepparton Art Gallery, Bendigo Art Gallery and the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery. In late 2007 he had a solo exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, that set his works on colonialism in an international context.{{cite web|url=http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/gordon-bennett |title=Exhibitions: Gordon Bennett |date=2007 |publisher=National Gallery of Victoria |access-date=15 June 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221013829/http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibitions/gordon-bennett |archive-date=21 February 2014}}

Selected solo exhibitions include: Outsider / Insider: The Art of Gordon Bennett, The Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands, (2012); Gordon Bennett: a survey, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2007), and touring to Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth; The Expiation of Guilt, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK (2007); History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett, Brisbane City Gallery (1999), and touring to Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK; Arnolfini, Bristol, UK; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Norway.

In 2017, his work featured in the group exhibition In the future everything will be as certain as it used to be at Framer Framed, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Bennett exhibited his work in biennales in numerous cities, including Sydney, Venice, Gwangju, Shanghai, Prague and Berlin.{{cite web | publisher = Museum of Contemporary Art Australia | title = Gordon Bennett | url = https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/artists/gordon-bennett/}}

Bennett expressed his discomfort with being seen as spokesman for Aboriginal peoples, and in a manifesto (or 'manifest toe' as he called it) published in 1996 he spoke of his wish "to avoid banal containment as a professional Aborigine, which both misrepresents me and denies my upbringing and Scottish/English heritage,"*{{cite web

| last = Roberts

| first = Jo

| title = Confronting and uncompromising

| work = The Age

| date = 10 September 2007

| url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/entertainment/confronting-and-uncompromising/2007/09/09/1189276541348.html

| access-date = 15 June 2014

}} while simultaneously expressing his wish that his young daughter could grow up in a society where her life would not be defined by her race. The confrontation of Australian racism is a regular theme in works by Bennett.{{sfn|Grishin|2013|p=500}}

Gordon Bennett died in Brisbane on 3 June 2014, of natural causes.{{cite web

| publisher = Milani Gallery

| title = Death Notice for Gordon Bennett

| url = http://www.milanigallery.com.au/news/gordon-bennett-1955-2014

| access-date = 6 June 2014

}} He was 58.

Judith Ryan, senior curator from the National Gallery of Victoria in 2004 described Bennett as "an artist's artist" and "like no other artist currently working". Noting the influence of Jackson Pollock, Piet Mondrian and Basquiat, she considered Bennett's style to be theoretical and confronting, and intended to encourage critical reflection on national identity.

Bennett is represented in most major public collections in Australia, including the Queensland Art Gallery,{{cite web|url=http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_australian_art/gordon_bennett|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315055835/http://qagoma.qld.gov.au/collection/contemporary_australian_art/gordon_bennett|url-status=dead|archive-date=15 March 2012|title=Triptych: Requiem, Of Grandeur, Empire 1989|last=Bennett|first=Gordon|quote=Purchased 1989|work=Collection: Contemporary Australian art|publisher=Queensland Art Gallery|access-date=15 June 2014}} as well as in several important overseas collections.

In September 2017, Bennett's 1991 Possession Island was unveiled at London's Tate Modern.{{cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/world/londons-tate-modern-takes-possession-of-iconic-australian-art-20170920-gykxbg.html|title=London's Tate Modern takes possession of iconic Australian art|last=Miller |first=Nick |date=20 September 2017 |work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=21 September 2017}}

• Visual arts of Australia

Notes

{{Reflist}}

Bibliography

• {{cite book|last=Grishin|first=Sasha|title=Australian Art: A History|publisher=The Miegunyah Press|location=Carlton, VIC|year=2013|isbn=978-0-522-85652-1}}
• {{cite book|last = McLean|first = Ian|author2=Gordon Bennett|year = 1996|title = The Art of Gordon Bennett|publisher = Craftsman House|location = Roseville East, NSW|isbn = 90-5703-221-X}}

• {{cite web

| title = Gordon Bennett

| work = Trove Guide to Australian Cultural Collections

| publisher = National Library of Australia

| url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/result?q=subject%3A%22Bennett%2C+Gordon%22

| access-date = 15 June 2014

}}

• {{cite web

| last = Bell

| first = Richard

| authorlink = Richard Bell (artist)

| title = The death of Queensland artist Gordon Bennett is a huge blow to the Australian contemporary art world.

| work = The Guardian

| date = 13 June 2014

| url = https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/australia-culture-blog/2014/jun/14/gordon-bennett-richard-bells-tribute-to-the-passing-of-an-australian-art-great

| access-date = 15 June 2014

}}

• {{cite web

| title = Gordon Bennett

| format = Essay which accompanied exhibit on the bicentenary of the slave trade act consisting of 6 digital prints, 2 acrylics on canvas and one performance DVD

| publisher = Museum of Archeology and Anthropology

| date = 2007

| url = http://maa.cam.ac.uk/maa/gordon-bennett/

| access-date = 15 June 2014

}}

• {{cite web

| title = Gordon Bennett

| format = Artist Biography, 18 Artworks and 6 Exhibitions

| publisher = Sutton Gallery

| date = 1990–2013

| url = http://www.suttongallery.com.au/artists/artistprofile.php?id=14

| access-date = 8 June 2014

}}

• {{cite web

|title = Gordon Bennett

|format = Artist Biography, 33 Artworks, 5 Essays, Solo and Selected Group Shows, Collections, Selected Bibliography

|publisher = Greenway Gallery

|date = 2002–2008

|url = http://www.greenaway.com.au/Artists/Gordon-Bennett.html

|access-date = 8 June 2014

|url-status = dead

|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140530232433/http://www.greenaway.com.au/Artists/Gordon-Bennett.html

|archive-date = 30 May 2014}}

• {{cite web

| last = Bennett

| first = Gordon

| title = Number Nine 2008

| format = acrylic on linen 182.5 × 304 cm (diptych)

| publisher = Artabase

| url = http://www.artabase.net/artist/1101-gordon-bennett

| access-date = 8 June 2014

}}

• {{cite web

|last=Bennett

|first=Gordon

|title=Abstraction (Citizen) Exhibition

|format=12 acrylic images on linen or paper each 121 x 80 cm (unframed)

|publisher=Gallery Barry Keldoulis

|date=17 November – 10 December 2010

|url=http://www.gbk.com.au/artists/gordon-bennett/abstraction-citizen

|access-date=8 June 2014

|url-status=dead

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140223020913/http://www.gbk.com.au/artists/gordon-bennett/abstraction-citizen

|archive-date=23 February 2014

}}

• {{cite web

| title = Gordon Bennett

| publisher = Art Galleries Schubert/Contemporary

| url = http://www.schubertcontemporary.com.au/Galleries/Contemporary/Links/bennett_gordon.htm

| access-date = 8 June 2014

}}

• {{cite web

| title = Artist Profile Gordon Bennett

| publisher = Sherman Galleries

| url = http://www.shermangalleries.com.au/artists_exhib/artists/bennett.html

| access-date = 8 June 2014

}}

{{Urban Indigenous Australian art}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Gordon}}

Category:Australian Aboriginal artists

Category:Australian painters

Category:1955 births

Category:Queensland College of Art alumni

Category:People educated at Brisbane State High School

Category:Artists from Queensland

Category:2014 deaths

Category:20th-century Australian artists