Gordon Bennett at the Potter
In 1993, Gordon Bennett was an artist-in-residence at the University of Melbourne. At the time, he had only been out of art school for four years but was already making waves. Always highly productive, Bennett was also very experimental during this early part of his career. This talk by Professor Ian McLean will discuss Big Romantic Painting: Apotheosis of Captain Cook, a large major painting completed by Bennett during the 1993 residency, along with Bennettās two-part exhibition of installation art at the Potter titledĀ Mirrorama.
ABOUT PROFESSOR IAN MCLEAN
Ian McLean is the Hugh Ramsay Chair of Australian Art History at the University of Melbourne. Professor McLean was previously the Senior Research Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Wollongong and adjunct Professor at the University of Western Australia. He has published extensively on the subject of Australian art, particularly Indigenous and contemporary art. His books includeĀ Indigenous Archives: The Making and Unmaking of Aboriginal Art,Ā with Darren Jorgensen (2017);Ā Rattling Spears: A History of Indigenous Australian ArtĀ (2016);Ā Double Desire: Transculturation and Indigenous ArtĀ (2014); andĀ How Aborigines Invented the Idea of Contemporary ArtĀ (2011). His work has also been extensively published in journals such asĀ Australia and New Zealand Journal of Art, The Art BulletinĀ andĀ Third Text.Ā McLean has received numerous external grants including three ARC Discovery grants (2015, 2011, 2007) and two AAANZ prizes for best anthology in 2015 (Double Desire)Ā and 2012Ā (How Aborigines Invented the Idea of Contemporary Art).