13th-century Persian poet, theologian and Sufi mystic Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī wrote, “Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure”. Submerging himself in the culture of war-torn countries, artist George Gittoes holds on to this hope to produce works of deep beauty and profound vision.
In Beauty in the Face of Everything, Gittoes has deliberately moved away from his renowned hard-hitting figurative works—depicting scenes of war and devastation—to create a collection of intensely coloured, lyrical watercolours. This shift reflects Gittoes’ recent summation that “to document is not enough”—instead, he seeks to bring about real social change in Afghanistan through the uplifting power of art. In 2011, he established the "Yellow House Jalalabad", an extension of the legendary Yellow House collective based in Sydney’s Potts Point—co-founded by Gittoes in 1969—an homage to Vincent Van Gogh’s unrealised dream to establish a centre for artists to live, work and exhibit in his house in Arles. In a region where artists, filmmakers and musicians are regularly targeted by the Taliban, the Yellow House Jalalabad provides a much needed creative sanctuary. Gittoes’ whimsical work Vincent’s Irises in the secret garden, Yellow House Jalalabad 'Beauty in the face of war' takes direct inspiration from this significant linage.
The watercolours featured in this exhibition were produced at the Yellow House Jalalabad while Gittoes was shooting the highly anticipated documentary film Love City Jalalabad premiering at this year's Sydney Film Festival on 7th June. Each work has a rich story behind it, often literally scribbled down by Gittoes on the reverse side of the thick, luscious Italian paper (a rare find from a bric-a-brac shop in Afghanistan), serving to function as an evidentiary trace, or relic, of his inspirational mission, to create “exquisite beauty in the face of horror and violence”.
Nature serves as an insightful metaphor for this vision, an irrepressible force that continues to rise up and rejuvenate despite the surrounding war. Taking influence from the Islamic belief that a well maintained garden is a symbol of paradise, Gittoes features flowers in a number of works such as Paradise Arrangement in which deep magenta roses surround a whirlpool of colour and frenetic movement. However, in a feeble attempt to capture the beauty of nature, the flowers in Still Life of Cut Flowers in a Round Vase have been detached from their grounding life source – a poetic symbol of death that acts as a tribute to Gittoes’ mother who recently passed away.
Working in a semi-abstracted style was not only a necessity for Gittoes (figurative art is banned by the Taliban regime) it also allowed him to explore a fluid, expressive style drawing on his early training in Chinese Calligraphy. The considered use of negative space and the dynamic movement of the central red brushstrokes in Free to Dance is akin to Chinese painting that emphasises motion, the perfect medium for Gittoes to express the joyfulness of dance in a country where it is forcefully oppressed.
The artworks in Beauty in the Face of Everything are printed with exquisite ancient Buddhist and Islamic stamps collected by Gittoes throughout his travels (also exhibited), not only lending a striking texture to the soft watercolours but also imbuing the works with a rich, layered cultural history. This history forms the subject matter of The Butterfly & the Ferryman (Siddhartha in Transformation) where Gittoes tells the story a ferryman helping him on a treacherous journey to cross the Kabul river, a sacred site for pilgrims where it is believed the skull of Buddha was laid to rest. Depicting the moment of enlightenment where the young prince, Siddhartha, transforms into Buddha, Gittoes draws on the strong spiritual soul of the Afghan landscape.
The title of the exhibition, Beauty in the Face of Everything, aptly sums up Gittoes' mission in visiting places like Afghanistan - while there may be a myriad of death, destruction and political turmoil, Gittoes seeks out and succeeds in finding an underlying beauty that remains despite its overt subjugation. Here is a man who should have lost all hope, yet he shows us the path forward through the darkness of human conflict – and what an inspiringly beautiful path he has paved.
Emma Crott
2013
