A.L.S.O.
Art – George Gittoes
“The Preacher” – George Gittoes
Art has impact. It comes from and takes us to the spaces between life’s linear sameness. Giftedness? I think there could be but determination, practice, focus, people, failures and opportunities all end up in the parabolic tensions of growth. My own mark making has evolved into the spaces between while considering how far to move away from the avalanches of amazing artists like George. How does one make a mark with their own mark? I am learning this: mark making must be honed from concept, dream and intuitive hints. And never ending actual mark work in the studio. And wherever.
George Gittoes is a unique and outstanding artist in Australia who is well known as a painter and film maker and for his remarkable Yellow House in Kabul and more recently his work in Kyiv, Ukraine. “Gittoes [has an]unflinching belief in the power of art to counteract war.”
I found the following story by Elizabeth Fortescue deeply moving.
Image Courtesy George Gittoes – Hazelhurst Sutherland Shire
“This painting is called ‘The Preacher’, by the Australian artist George Gittoes. It depicts that moment when the preacher was urging peace and strength on his flock, just before they were all hacked to death in the Kibeho Massacre, an infamous event in the history of Rwanda. Gittoes witnessed the horrors of the massacre as it unfolded over several days. This preacher, who was calming his flock just before they were all hacked to death, remains to this day a symbol of calm and dignity in the midst of the unthinkable. Now in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the painting has just gone on view to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the massacre.
Gittoes wrote: “In the midst of [the massacre], I heard the most beautiful choral singing. I followed the sound and there was a preacher holding a bible up and leading his congregation in song. It was incredibly moving. He had restored their dignity. They would not die like frightened animals but with their inner pride in place. I asked him if he thought that if I stayed with them they might not be killed. He said: ‘It is more likely George, as they do not want witnesses and you have documented their crimes’. He then showed me four young boys whose parents had been killed in the night and asked me if I could try to get them to safety. Reluctantly, I agreed. I used my best magic and got the boys out safely past the killers who were beheading anyone who tried to escape. I put them under a UN truck and they lived. When I returned, the whole congregation were dead on the ground among their possessions. I could only find the preacher’s blood-stained yellow coat. I never found his body”.
By Elizabeth Fortescue
#gittoesartist
#Australianarthistory
#artnotwar
#georgegittoes
Original Post/Source: Facebook.
Does pretty art or art with an aesthetic appeal have a place in our lives?
How does art act as a signpost in our lives, influencing decisions and futures?
Peter Breen, April 2, 2025.
“George Gittoes is an eyewitness in the world’s contact zones. Visiting the battle- and killing-fields of Rwanda, Iraq, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Bosnia and Afghanistan, Gittoescaptures 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, several feature films covering the war on terror have been released by Gittoes since 2004.
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, the Powerhouse Museum, the State Library of NSW, the 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. It was in Berlin that Gittoes produced and exhibited his Descendence series (2009–10), before returning to the Tribal Belt of Pakistan.Gittoes’ ongoing endeavour to reveal the horror and complexity of war is unique.”
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