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George Gittoes
Born 1949. Works in Sydney, New York and Berlin.
Gittoes is described simultaneously as a figurative painter, a modernist, a postmodernist, a social realist, a pop artist and an expressionist.
Painter, photographer and filmmaker George Gittoes is an eyewitness to the world's contact zones. Visiting the battle and killing fields of Rwanda, Iraq, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Bosnia and Afghanistan, Gittoes captures the atrocities and attacks on basic human rights. He produces poignant, rare images of the aftermath of terror, shock and death on the edge of human experience.
Gittoes is described simultaneously as a figurative painter, a
modernist, a postmodernist, a social realist, a pop artist and an
expressionist. His painting "The Preacher", winner of the Blake
Prize for Religious Art in 1995, was completed following his visit
to Rwanda in 1995 with the Australian peacekeeping forces.
Also an internationally acclaimed filmmaker, three feature films
covering the war on terror have been released by Gittoes since
2004. The "No Exit" trilogy - Soundtrack to War (2004), Rampage
(2006) and The Miscreants of Taliwood (2009) - has received
outstanding reviews and been selected in leading international film
festivals in Europe (including London's prestigious Raindance
Festival), Canada, the USA and Australia.
Gittoes acknowledges his journey is one into the heart of human
darkness: "I believe there is a role for contemporary art to
challenge, rather than entertain. My work is confronting humanity
with the darker side of itself."
Gittoes has received significant critical acclaim and is widely
published, with a monologue on the artist's career released by
Gavin Fry in 2003. His work is included in the collections of the
National Gallery of Australia, Powerhouse Museum, State Library of
NSW, Queensland Art Gallery, and the Museum & Art Gallery of
NT, as well as in regional Galleries throughout Australia and
private collections in Australia, Germany, the USA, Canada, the UK
and Switzerland.
After being awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters by the
University of NSW in 2008, Gittoes relocated to Berlin in early
2009, working closely with Mayen Beckmann, the distinguished German
curator and granddaughter of the iconic German Expressionist
painter Max Beckmann. Mayen herself has compared Gittoes'
expressive style with that of her late grandfather, sharing a
commitment for revealing the darker side of human nature during
times of conflict, and as she describes, "a mania for drawing". It
was in Berlin that Gittoes produced and exhibited his Descendence
series (2009-10) before returning to the Tribal Belt of
Pakistan.
A recentexhibition curated by James Harithas, 'Witness to
War', at the Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston,
was the first major presentation of Gittoes' work in the United
States, where he has received growing market interest.
RECENT MEDIA
Afghanistan Times interview 1/7/11
The Station Museum
website
ABC
television 3/11/11
Interview with Levi Strauss for The Brooklyn Rail, Jul
2010
CNN interview with Becky Anderson, Mar 2010
Studio International, UK, article by Janet McKenzie, Mar
2010
