Who Is Gordon Bennett's Appropriation

Appropriation is a twentieth century arts phenomena adopted by many visual artists, whereby artwork, imagery, icons and styles are borrowed to create a new artwork. Gordon Bennett is an indigenous Australian who appropriates art styles and imagery to create his art. He used oil and acrylic paint on canvas to create The Outsider (1988), which was a reflection on his own identity and indigenous issues. Bennett incorporates Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night (1889) and Bedroom At Arles (1888), Romanesque sculptures and traditional indigenous painting styles.
Gordon Bennett appropriated Vincent van Gogh’s post-impressionist painting style, using expressive brush strokes and clear and dramatic colour contrasts. Bennett was inspired by the ‘grotesque’ style of art, which is normally associated with bizarre, ugly or disturbing imagery. The sky in this artwork appropriates van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night, but incorporates a traditional Indigenous painting style known as dot painting. The figure standing above the bed from van Gogh’s Bedroom At Arles appears to be of Aboriginal descent and seems to be looking over the Romanesque heads characterize classical roman art styles and sculptures. Bennett1 describes his art work as “a decapitated Aboriginal figure standing over Vincent van
Gordon Bennett incorporates Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Starry Night and Bedroom At Arles. He also includes some of his identity, history and culture by adding an Indigenous traditional art style, known as dot painting. The art work perfectly depicts his identity and aboriginal issues, by delivering a powerful message to the spectator on how Indigenous people were treated with violence and disrespect, during invasion, settlement and modern day life. Personally I appreciate Bennett’s art work as it is successful at delivering the appropriate and powerful message to the