Thursday 13 October 2011“We Were Here First”: Richard Bell: Uz vs. Them
Richard Bell
Published in September 2011 by D Giles Limited, in association with the American Federation of Arts, Richard Bell: Uz vs. Them is a long overdue, vibrant and broad-ranging study of one of Australia’s leading contemporary artists.
Over the past two decades, Richard Bell has established a significant reputation as a political commentator and an “enfant terrible” of Indigenous art. His provocative and often humorous works, with their bold use of images and text, force viewers to face the troubling issue of racism in Australia.
Bell’s inspiration is complex and multi-layered. He is an avid appropriator, borrowing from artists of other periods and cultures, including Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns, Jackson Pollock, and Aboriginal painter Emily Kam Kngwarreye, to create powerful messages. He works across a wide range of media, including painting, performance, and video, producing works of protest that confront and unsettle ideas about the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, about their country’s history and about art itself.
This stunningly illustrated catalogue features work from the last 20 years, with more than 40 colour illustrations, and an extensive interview with the artist by Maura Reilly. The volume explores Bell’s work within the context of Indigenous politics, as well as examining its formal qualities. Also featured are a foreword by Eleanor Heartney, a “manifesto” by Bell, an essay by Indigenous art specialist Djon Mundine, a timeline, a bibliography, and an index.
Publication coincides with the opening of a travelling exhibition organized by the American Federation of Arts, New York.
The Authors
Maura Reilly is professor of Art Theory at Queensland College of Art, Griffith University, in Queensland, Australia.
Djon Mundine who is a member of the Bandjalung people of northern New South Wales, is an independent curator of contemporary art, as well as an activist, writer, and occasional artist. Eleanor Heartney is a contributing editor to Art in America and Artpress and author of many articles and books on contemporary art, most recently, Art and Today (2008).
RICHARD BELL
Uz vs. Them
80 pages, 191 x 279 mm (11 x 7½ in.), landscape
46 colour and 10 b&w illustrations, hardback
ISBN: 978 1 904832 95 9
Price: US$35.00/UK£25.00
Publication date: September 2011
Publisher: D Giles Limited, London
Distributed in the UK and Rest of World (excluding US and Canada) by ACC
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At the American Federation of Arts:
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ENDS
