Home Décor (De Stijl + Preston) Get Down and Boogie 1996

Gordon Bennett’s Home Décor (De Stijl + Preston) Get Down and Boogie appropriates from the work of two leading modernist artists: Australian Margaret Preston and Dutch ‘De Stijl’ artist Piet Mondrian. Bennett creates a pattern with the large human footprints in Preston’s c.1957 ‘Australian legend’ print series – an image she took from rock carvings in the Sydney area, which she saw during excursions with the Anthropological Society of New South Wales.

Preston’s pursuit of a purely ‘Australian’ art also saw her using racial stereotypes when depicting First Nations peoples. Bennett references this by reproducing a figure from her print Australian legend, number 4: Kangaroo dance and pointing the bone c.1957 (Art Gallery of New South Wales). Bennett’s figure sits against a background reminiscent of Mondrian’s famous grid paintings, which were inspired by New York City’s streets and the boogie-woogie music that originated in African American blues. Bennett’s pairing of Preston and Mondrian highlights how both artists drew from other cultures and influenced popular aesthetics.