Focus on this artwork and discuss the Description.
Outsider measures 290 x 180 cm and is published as a collection within the University of Queensland's Art Museum. Bennett's subject is depicted through the central figure of an Indigenous Australian man's decapitated torso in of Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles (1888) with blood spurting from his gaping neck. The upright torso leans over the yellow-brown bed in Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles while two white decapitated classical sculptural heads are lolling dumbly on the bed as opposed to the empty bed of Van Gogh's. The walls are covered with red hand marks which are assumed to be the bloodshed of the decapitated figure. Along the top half of the painting, the spurting blood from the neck leads into and blends with the sky which has stylised strokes of Van Gogh's The Starry Night (1889) painted with the same colour scheme but with darker hues of blue, yellow, and black. It is suggested that the dots and dashes in the sky reflect Western Desert Aboriginal 'dot paintings' which is the first instance in which Bennett makes these allusions in his work. These dots provide a connection to Bennett's Indigenous heritage.
University of Queensland Australia classical sculptural The Starry Night (1889) The Starry Night Bedroom in Arles Bedroom in Arles (1888) dot painting Indigenous Australian University of Queensland's collection Van Gogh