Between: gittoes

Showing posts with label gittoes. Show all posts

Sunday, 25 April 2021

Artlyst - George Gittoes: Equal parts artist and warrior

My latest article for Artlyst is a preview of 'George Gittoes: on being there' at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. Australian artist and documentary filmmaker, George Gittoes is an artist willing to create in the face of chaos and potential destruction:

'George Gittoes: on being there gives privileged access to his process through his personal visual diaries, field drawings, photography and film. Through these forms, we experience an amazing human journey that holds out the hopeful power of creativity in the face of prejudice and fear. This is a magnificent visual record of how Gittoes not only survives but creates in the face of forces that would seek to repress the human imagination.

Gittoes has learned that documenting frontline action is not enough; he wants to use art to bring about change. He wants, as Pattenden writes, ‘to pull us into these narratives and for us to consider what matters most when we talk about what life means and the nature of survival and human thriving.’'

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -

Articles -

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bruce Cockburn - Call It Democracy.

Thursday, 6 May 2010

Airbrushed from Art History (16)

Australia and Poland are two countries which have seen specific and successful initiatives to reconcile modern art and Christianity. Australia, through the initiation of the Blake Prize for Religious Art and Poland, through the idea of ‘sacrum’ in art.

Revd. Rod Pattenden, Chairperson of the Blake Society writes that:

“The Blake Prize is one of the more prestigious art prizes in Australia. Since 1951 the Blake Society has been awarding a prize for works of art that explore the subject of religious awareness and spirituality. In difference to art prizes that are awarded for distinct subject areas such as landscape or portraiture, the Blake has always invited a much more open, personal and idiosyncratic response, so much so that it has earned the criticism, ire and sometimes applause of critics and the public alike. After all, what is religious art?

First awarded in 1951 it has brought to the attention of the art world new and emerging artist as well as allowing for innovation and experimentation of expression. Senior artists like John Coburn, Eric Smith and Rod Milgate first came to attention through their winning entries for the Prize. In more recent years, the Blake has seen something of a revival of interest with increasing numbers of entries and a diversity of ideas being expressed in the works. Recent winners have included George Gittoes, Hilarie Mais and Rachel Ellis. The search for a visual means of expressing deeply held perceptions and beliefs is rewarded each year in an exhibition that begins its life in Sydney and then travels around Australia.”

Rosemary Crumlin is currently completing a book on the Blake Prize, Within, which covers the period from its beginning in 1950 to 2009; a period which has been of considerable significance in Australia. She writes that “its shifts and shaping have been influenced by perspectives and art movements beyond Australia.”

Pattenden notes that:

“The Prize was the brainchild of Richard Morley, a Jewish businessman, and Michael Scott, a Jesuit educationalist, who believed that such a Prize would provide contemporary works of art for the many new churches and synagogues being built in the post war suburban sprawl. While religious authorities were generally taken aback by the modern flavour of these new investigations, it was the artists who most welcomed the Blake as it allowed them to express more personal subject matter; in short, it rewarded innovation and daring. The Prize was named after the mystic artist and writer William Blake who is celebrated for his creative commitments rather than his adherence to any particular dogma.

Surprise is the more characteristic response to each year’s exhibition rather than a confirmation of any traditional iconography. In the search for fresh contemporary expressions of spirituality artists have continued to extend the envelope of the Blake to encompass a wide diversity of religious expression drawing on major religious traditions such as Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism and Judaism, as well as indigenous spirituality. The Blake has fostered this breadth of diversity and celebrated the various rich traditions that make up the landscape of belief in Australia.

More personal responses have also found their way into the Blake’s gamut with explorations of feminism and gender, connections with the natural world and the wider referencing of the political influences of war, ecology and globalisation. There is nothing the Blake doesn’t seem to cover even tolerating parody, irony and humour over against the usually serious face of organised religion. Each year there is much to be annoyed by, seduced by, or simply inspired by. It is a thoroughly ecumenical experience for the eyes!”

In 2002 Crumlin curated a retrospective of the Blake Prize. Her main purpose in the retrospective was to show, through the paintings, how society's views on spirituality had changed over half a century: "Initially, she says, "artists - and the Blake committee - took it for granted that 'religious' meant 'Christian' and that 'Christian' was to be equated with scriptural narratives". Today, artists and judges have a less restricted view of spirituality, encompassing not just other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, but alternative faith systems, everything from "New Ageism" to Aboriginality."

Pattenden considers that:

“A Prize for Religious Art reminds us that the arts have a valuable role to play in a society as we explore the place of passion, love, belief and action. Learning to appreciate the diversity of belief allows more opportunity to act together with understanding and compassion. Art allows us to speculate on the mystery of life, while learning to appreciate the deeply held perceptions of people different to us without needing to agree with their ideas. Art has always had a close relationship to religious expression and exploration. It is a medium suited to exploring the many creative paths that people take on their life journey and honouring that diversity.”

The Prize is managed by the Blake Society, which is currently developing a Foundation to ensure the ongoing viability of the Prize. Its membership comes from a diverse range of professions and religious interests. The common goal of the Society is to affirm the ongoing and dynamic contribution of this cultural institution to Australian society and the arts.

By contrast to the positive embrace of the arts and religion that is seen in the Blake Prize, in Poland during the 1980’s, as martial law forced virtually the entire artistic community in Poland to boycott the official exhibition spaces, we see a similar embrace developing in response to this oppression, as the only other places which found widespread approval among independent artistic and intellectual groups were the churches. So, churches became where artistic meetings, shows and exhibitions were held with most significant Polish artists and art figures participating in them, and only a very few veering away from addressing religious themes.

Agnieska Gralinska-Toborek describes the first, and probably the most famous, of these exhibitions, which was organised in 1983 by Janusz Bogucki in the church of God's Mercy in Warsaw, as follows:

“Under the title The Sign of the Cross, it brought together over fifty artists and photographers, as well as actors, musicians, art theorists, and filmmakers, who took part in the meetings, lectures and concerts accompanying the exhibition. Popularising the idea of ‘art returning home’, i.e. coming back to the sacrum, [Janusz] Bogucki managed to convert to it many respected and important artists from the Polish avant-garde. The interior of the Gothic church, ruined during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944 and in the process of being laboriously rebuilt by the parishioners, played the function of an extraordinary gallery. Without interrupting the construction work, the artists used the space of the church and the vaults, including the elements of its architecture into their arrangements. They had to learn how to co-operate and talk with the parishioners, who felt themselves to be the owners of the place and were not always willing to accept the artists' ideas. It was a good preparation for further exhibitions organised by Bogucki, such as Apocalypse – The Light in the Darkness (1984) and Labyrinth – The Underground Space (1989).”

Janusz Bogucki (1916-1995), was an important Polish critic and art historian, who noted a tendency towards the spiritual in Polish avant-garde art which, in artists such as Jerzy Tchórzewski, Stefan Gierowski and Jerzy Bereś, arose from a need to achieve transcendence and was characterised by a search for the Absolute. The work of these and other artists was, for Bogucki, confirmation of his idea that art should turn to sacrum and he, therefore, invited them to take part in his church-based projects in the early 1980s.

Most significant Polish artists participated in these exhibitions, including the Gruppa artists. It was also in this period that the work of Jerzy Nowosielski revealed its full fascination with icon paintings through the publication of "Wokół ikony" / "Around the Icon" (1985) and later "Mój Chrystus" / "My Christ" (1993). Yet the spiritual expression was not, on the whole, extended into the next decade as, when the political turning-point came in 1989, the general adherence to links with the Church became, for many artists, “a good reason to break with it - and this was particularly true of radical circles - because it was regarded as a restraint not dissimilar to those imposed hitherto by the totalitarian regime.” A sense of sacrum continued only in a very minimal way in the work, for example, of Jerzy Kalina, Włodzimierz Pawlak, and Robert Rumas.

Gralinska-Toborek writes that Bogucki:

“based his vision of contemporary culture on the distinction between three artistic attitudes: EZO, POP and SACRUM. EZO corresponded to the egocentric attitude of the avant-garde presented thus far, its attachment to the sacrum of art. POP was a new attitude, ‘a total secularisation of art, its incorporation into the scientific, technological and administrative mechanisms of civilisation and mass culture.’ The tendency within POP was for practicality and pragmatism, characteristic of the civilization of haste and success. The third attitude, in which Bogucki placed his hopes, was SACRUM, an attempt at rediscovering the relation between the sacrum of art and the primal sacrum, manifested in reflection on the timeless and non-material meaning of human existence … Art should, first of all, reconstruct the universality of meanings in its language, overcome the alienation of the artist through communal activity, and finally save from insanity or exhaustion those artists who seek spiritual metamorphosis on their own, without God and thus without any preparation. In order to attain this goal, artists were to give up the basic assumptions of modernism: egocentrism and the cult of individuality in favour of humility, group work, combining creation with spiritual experience, and going back to original sources, especially Christian ones, to deepen their faith. Bogucki’s conception came into existence around the time that the views of critics of modernism reached Poland. Those critics saw the modernist desacralization of life and art as the source of spiritual and moral crises and
cultural nihilism. Such a claim was made, for example, by Daniel Bell, who described the period of modernism as a process of rationalisation in the technological and economic spheres of life, secularisation in politics, and de-sacralization in culture. He believed that the contemporary man suspended in a spiritual void could only be saved through religious rebirth. This concept of postmodernism received a warm welcome in Poland, and was popularised by Bogucki, who held similar beliefs.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Henryk Gorecki - Miserere.

Thursday, 15 January 2009

Australian Anglican Art Archive

The Anglican Church of Australia has an interesting archive of images which show many of the art works made for its churches in stained glass, metals, timbers, fabrics and textiles. It is designed to be of general interest, but it is particularly intended for use by those studying the fine arts, and architectural and liturgical history.

Australia has regularly taken a varied and innovative approach to modern and contemporary religious art, including the establishment of an annual prize. The Blake Prize for Religious Art is one of the more prestigious art prizes in Australia. For 55 years it has been awarding a prize for works of art that explore the subject of religious awareness and spirituality.

First awarded in 1951 it has brought to the attention of the art world new and emerging artist as well as allowing for innovation and experimentation of expression. Senior artists like John Coburn, Eric Smith and Rod Milgate first came to attention through their winning entries for the Prize. In more recent years, the Blake has seen something of a revival of interest with increasing numbers of entries and a diversity of ideas being expressed in the works. Recent winners have included George Gittoes, Hilarie Mais and Rachel Ellis.

Rosemary Crumlin, who in 2002 curated a retropective of the Blake Prize, has been described as being "Australia's version of Sister Wendy Beckett:"

"Like Beckett, Crumlin discovered she had two callings - her faith and her love of art. For the past 10 years, she has been a full-time curator and art historian specialising in modern art and spirituality. Among her books are Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Images of Religion in Australian Art and Beyond Belief: Modern Art and the Religious Imagination.

Her main purpose in the retrospective was to show, through the paintings, how society's views on spirituality had changed over half a century:

"Initially, she says, "artists - and the Blake committee - took it for granted that 'religious' meant 'Christian' and that 'Christian' was to be equated with scriptural narratives". Today, artists and judges have a less restricted view of spirituality, encompassing not just other religions such as Judaism, Buddhism and Islam, but alternative faith systems, everything from "New Agism" to Aboriginality."

Such profound changes were reflected in the art with the first winners being essentially figurative works and later winers gradually becoming more abstract.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Midnight Oil - King Of The Mountain.

Friday, 1 February 2008

Biblical Art: An International A-Z - Part 1

Art histories rarely focus on modern sacred or religious art, giving the impression that the visual arts in the twentieth century were predominantly secular. This represents a Western view of art history which can itself be challenged and which completely overlooks the significant development of Biblical Art in Asia and Africa throughout this period and on into the contemporary scene. The following A-Z attempts to provide a brief sample of some of the artists and organisations that create and support Biblical Art in Asia and Africa:

Asian Christian Art Association (ACAA): Founded in 1978 to encourage the visual arts in Asian churches. ACAA has raised the profile of Asian Christian Art through conferences, exhibitions, publications, a magazine (Image) and a website. Christian Art in Asia, The Bible through Asian eyes and Christ for all people are each showcases for the art and artists that ACAA support.

The Blake Prize for Religious Art: an Australian art prize, named after William Blake, established in 1949 as an incentive to raise the standard of contemporary religious art. Justin O’Brien was the first winner, Eric Smith has been a seven times winner and other multiple winners include: John Coburn; Leonard French; George Gittoes; Roger Kemp; Rodney Milgate; Desiderius Orban and David Voigt.

Antoine Camilleri (1922 – 2005): an innovative Maltese artist who worked in a wide variety of media. He said that, “to succeed in painting one must always experiment and create new methods and designs.” In several works, such as Christ conquered the cross and his stained glass at the Augustinian Church at Tarxien, he succeeded in combining the significance of the crucifixion with that of the resurrection.

Ivo Dulčić (1916 – 1975): Croatian colourist whose paintings, murals and stained glass feature in Croatia’s churches, monasteries and museums. Dulčić was part of a trio of painters (with Đuro Pulitika and Antun Masle) in his native Dubrovnik.

Each with his own brush: Written in 1938 by Revd. Daniel Johnson Fleming, this book was the first extensive attempt to bring together examples of Christian Art from Asia and Africa. Among the artists featured are Luke Ch’en, Lu Hung Nien, and Alfred D. Thomas. Fleming wrote two other books on similar themes; Heritage of Beauty and Christian Symbols in a World Community.

Furen: A Chinese Christian school of painting which arose in Beijing between the two world wars at the Catholic University, but which lasted only until 1949. The Chinese Ministry of Education recognized it under the name Furen, a phrase found in the Analects of Confucius which can be translated as "promotion of righteousness." Luke Ch’en, a professor in the Art Department of the University, was the main proponent of this style. Ch’en educated and trained a group of Christian artists including Lu Hung Nien and Wang Su Da.

Gota Rochisuma Associates: a group of sculptors who work from Silviera House, a Catholic educational centre outside of Harare, Zimbabwe. Andrew Mabanji explains that the group "use as our theme the explosion of negative silence, the voice of the voiceless. As members of the Shona tribe we want to release from the stone the hidden strengths of indigenous Shona culture."

Ralph Hotere (b. 1931): a Maori artist of great originality whose origins in a small Maori Catholic community provided him with a magnificent resource from which he has continued to draw inspiration. The Stations of the Cross, the Sacred Heart and the Requiem all occur within the imagery he uses with ingenuity and emotion.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Paul Simon, Ladysmith Black Mambazo et al - Township Jive.