Ben Quilty
Born1973 (age 50–51)
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting, contemporary art
Awards2014 Prudential Eye Award
2011 Archibald Prize
2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize

Ben Quilty (born 1973) is an Australian artist and social commentator, who has won a series of painting prizes: the 2014 Prudential Eye Award, 2011 Archibald Prize, and 2009 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize. He has been described as one of Australia's most famous living artists.

Early life and education

Quilty was born in Sydney in 1973,[1][2][3] and grew up in Kenthurst in Sydney's north-west.[4]

He was educated at Kenthurst Public School and Oakhill College, where he exhibited his HSC artwork in ARTEXPRESS in 1991 (or 1992[5]). Subsequently, Quilty was selected as the recipient of the Julian Ashton Summer School Scholarship.[3][6]

After high school, Quilty followed his interest in art and obtained a Bachelor of Visual Arts in Painting from Sydney College of the Arts at the University of Sydney, graduating in 1994. He earned a Certificate in Aboriginal Culture and History in 1996, and went on to study visual communication, design and women's studies at Western Sydney University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 2001.[6]

Career

In 2002 Quilty won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, which increased his exposure to the public,[1] and he has been working full-time as an artist since then.[3]

He has been described as one of Australia's most famous living artists.[7]

Official war artist

From 11 October until 3 November 2011, Quilty was attached to the Australian Defence Force observing their activities in Kabul, Kandahar and Tarin Kowt. His task was to record and interpret the experiences of Australian service personnel who are deployed as part of Operation Slipper. After his return, Quilty spent six months producing work for the Australian War Memorial's National Collection. Such work is in the tradition of war artists that began in World War I with artists Arthur Streeton and George Lambert.[8][9] Quilty's experiences as a war artist and the work he produced as a result of it was explored in the ABC TV's Australian Story program "War Paint" screened on 3 September 2012.[10]

Style, subjects and practice

Quilty's work has been influenced by a number of life experiences, including the drug and drinking culture of his youth, later political activism, and his experience as a war artist.[1]

In 2002 he exhibited a series of paintings featuring his beloved Torana car, signifying the rituals of mateship among his cohort. A few years later, Van Rorschach (2005) represented a white minivan, a more practical vehicle. While, despite the name, this painting did not use the Rorschach technique (aka inkblot technique, used for psychological evaluation), he started using this technique in his later work, to explore the often violent colonial history of Australia.[1]

Quilty is known for his distinctive style of oil painting and a range of topics which includes portraits (he won the Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist and friend Margaret Olley), examination of masculine culture, expression of psychological interiors, and others which show his engagement with a range of social issues, such as the death penalty, asylum seekers, and massacres of Indigenous Australians.[11][7]

He lives and works in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.[1]

Other roles and activities

Quilty was a driving force in the establishment of a new gallery, the first in the Southern Highlands, situated in the grounds of historic Retford Park at Bowral. Called Ngununggula (meaning "belonging" in the local Gundungurra language), the gallery was created out of an old dairy, after Quilty led a major fundraising campaign and A$7.6 million was spent on its restoration and conversion.[12][13] It opened in October 2021,[14] and in mid-2022 featured a major exhibition of the work of brothers Abdul and Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, along with video works by Tracey Moffatt.[12]

Honours and awards

Exhibitions

Quilty's works have been exhibited at many locations, both solo and group exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions

In 2019 Quilty, a major touring survey exhibition, the first in a decade, curated by Lisa Slade of the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), was hosted first at AGSA (March 2019),[7] then at the Queensland Gallery of Modern Art[19] and the Art Gallery of New South Wales (October 2019[20]). The exhibition included works from his time in Afghanistan, Greece, Serbia and Lebanon, and celebrated his connection to artist Margaret Olley[21] as well as including new Rorschach-based works documenting the Myall Creek massacre and an hitherto unrecorded massacre in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY lands) in South Australia, titled Irin Irinji.[7] The run at the Art Gallery of New South Wales coincided with the release of the documentary Quilty – Painting the Shadows, made by Catherine Hunter, on ABC Television on 19 November 2019. A book, Quilty, was published to accompany the exhibition, which includes essays Slade, Quilty's close friend, author Richard Flanagan, and head curator of International Art at the Art Gallery[22] of NSW, Justin Paton.[20][11]

Other solo exhibitions include:

Group exhibitions

Group exhibitions include:

Other work on display

In December 2018, a Christmas tree created by Quilty and artist Mirra Whale out of refugees' discarded lifevests was displayed in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.[38]

Collections

As well as being held in private collections in Australia and around the world, examples of Quilty's work are held in a number of public collections in Australia,[1] including:

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 Slade, Lisa. "Ben Quilty". Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  2. ↑ "Ben Quilty". Artnet. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ben Quilty - Visual Arts". The Arts Unit. New South Wales Government. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  4. 1 2 Low, Lenny Ann (17 March 2007). "The hot seat: Ben Quilty". The Sydney Morning Herald.
  5. ↑ "Visual feast of student work at 2020 ARTEXPRESS". NSW Education. 11 February 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Ben Quilty". Brenda Colahan Fine Art. 12 March 2018. Retrieved 7 September 2021.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Delaney, Brigid (10 March 2019). "Ben Quilty on empathy, angry art, backlash and that Jesus photo". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  8. ↑ "Ben Quilty Official War Artist" (Press release). Canberra: Australian War Memorial. 14 December 2011. Retrieved 9 March 2012.
  9. ↑ Hawley, Janet (4 February 2012). "Tour of Duty". Good Weekend: 13, 14–15, 17.
  10. ↑ Transcript of "War Paint", Quilty's "Australian Story" on ABC television
  11. 1 2 Jefferson, Dee (20 November 2019). "Ben Quilty paints trauma of Myall Creek and other Australian massacre sites in Rorschach landscapes". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  12. 1 2 Fitzgerald, Michael (2 June 2022). "'Land Abounds': Considering the breadth and blind spots of art history". Art Monthly Australasia. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  13. ↑ Francis, Kirsty (4 June 2022). "'Land Abounds' presented by Ngununggula". A Rich Life. Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  14. ↑ "Archive". Ngununggula. Archived from the original on 5 June 2022. Retrieved 5 June 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  15. ↑ Westwood, Matthew (16 April 2011), "Margaret Olley leaves her hat on for Ben Quilty's win", The Australian, retrieved 16 April 2011
  16. ↑ "Robertson artist's Archibald entry". ABC Illawarra. 1 April 2011. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  17. ↑ "Ben Quilty portrait of Jimmy Barnes wins $150,000 Moran prize". The Australian. 10 March 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  18. ↑ "First self portrait prize handed out". ABC Local. 20 October 2007. Retrieved 16 April 2011.
  19. ↑ "Quilty". Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art. 22 June 2020. Retrieved 8 September 2021.
  20. 1 2 "Quilty". Art Gallery of New South Wales. 28 October 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2020.
  21. ↑ QAGOMA. "Quilty". Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  22. ↑ "Unveiling the Life & Art: Ben Quilty Biography -ICONICFOLKS". 7 December 2023. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  23. ↑ "Trigger-happy: Ben Quilty". dhg.anu.edu.au. Drill Hall Gallery, ANU. Archived from the original on 14 March 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  24. ↑ "Ben Quilty 4 July–3 August 2014". saatchigallery.com. Saatchi Gallery. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  25. ↑ Kit Messham-Muir (9 July 2014). "Ben Quilty at the Saatchi Gallery … things just got interesting". theconversation.com. The Conversation Media Group Ltd. Retrieved 30 November 2017. Ben Quilty is the first Australian artist to hold a solo show at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
  26. ↑ Anna Delprat (10 July 2014). "Ben Quilty exhibits solo show at esteemed Saatchi Gallery, London". vogue.com.au. NewsLifeMedia. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  27. ↑ Lenny Ann Low (3 July 2014). "Ben Quilty flies solo at Saatchi Gallery in London". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  28. ↑ Maresa Harvey (14 July 2014). "Review of Ben Quilty, Saatchi Gallery London". aestheticamagazine.com. Aesthetica Magazine Ltd. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  29. ↑ "Ben Quilty: 17th September, 2014 – 11th October, 2014". Galerie Allen. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  30. ↑ "Ben Quilty". Bendigo Art Gallery. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  31. ↑ "Ben Quilty: Straight White Male". Pearl Lam Galleries Hong Kong. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  32. ↑ "Ben Quilty, Studio View, 2013". Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art. Art Gallery of South Australia. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  33. ↑ Robert Nelson (14 August 2014). "Melbourne Art Fair: Discovering the Commercial Soul". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 30 November 2017. Almost escaping his own mannerism as a painter, Ben Quilty at Tolarno Galleries has taken an amazing turn into cultural significance, and with a similarly baroque sensibility, through the medium of ceramics.
  34. ↑ "Embodied". Visual Arts Calendar Hong Kong. Archived from the original on 24 August 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  35. ↑ "Emodied". Pearl Lam Galleries Hong Kong. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  36. ↑ "Sappers & Shrapnel: Contemporary Art and the Art of the Trenches". artgallery.sa.gov.au. Art Gallery of South Australia. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  37. ↑ "NGV Triennial". ngv.vic.gov.au. National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  38. ↑ Eltham, Ben (15 November 2018). "Ben Quilty transforms St Paul's Cathedral's Christmas tree into refugee tribute". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
  39. ↑ "Ben Quilty". artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Art Gallery NSW. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  40. ↑ "Australian: Q". artgallery.sa.gov.au. Art Gallery of South Australia. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  41. ↑ "Kuta Rorschach No 2". bendigoartgallery.com.au. Bendigo Art Gallery. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  42. ↑ "CRAG 30th Birthday: Divide and Context". grag.com.au. Goulburn Mulwaree Council. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  43. ↑ "MCA Collection: New Acquisitions 2007". mca.com.au. Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Archived from the original on 5 July 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  44. ↑ "LEAVING A LEGACY Margaret Olley's gifts to Newcastle". Retrieved 16 September 2020.
  45. ↑ "Length and Breadth: new acquisitions from the Parliament House Art Collection". aph.gov.au. Parliament of Australia. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  46. ↑ "Strength, Fragility, Trauma and Resolve". qagoma.qld.gov.au. Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. 24 April 2017. Retrieved 1 December 2017.
  47. ↑ https://gsam.melbourne.axiell.com/?record=eparties.1354 sheppartonartmuseum.com.au. Shepparton Art Museum. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
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