Empty Mirror

a literary magazine

  • About
    • About Empty Mirror
    • Get in Touch
    • Support EM
    • Colophon
  • Submit
  • Contributors
  • Essays
  • On Literature
  • Poetry
  • Reviews
  • Art
  • Interviews
  • Beat
    • Beat Generation
    • Ted Joans Lives!
  • +
    • Fiction
    • Music & Film
    • News
    • On Writing
    • Book Collecting

Australian Artist Paints the War in Afghanistan

David Ackley

Ben Quilty looks more like a lumberjack than a painter: stocky build, big beard, flannel shirt. But Quilty, from Paterson, New South Wales, is actually one of Australia’s most promising portrait artists.

2011 marked two significant events in Ben Quilty’s young career. He won the 2011 Archibald Prize for his portrait of artist Margaret Olley, and was also selected to spend a month touring with troops in Afghanistan as Australia’s official war artist. This experience proved to be highly emotional, testing Quilty’s ability to engage with extremely challenging subject matter.

Ben Quilty - Captain S After Afghanistan

As a portrait artist, Quilty painted a number of servicemen, attempting to capture their distress on canvas. Captain S After Afghanistan placed Quilty as a finalist in the 2012 Archibald Prize competition. In it, the viewer can feel the turmoil of the subject, vulnerable in his nude state. The position was chosen by the subject, reflecting an actual combat experience. Quilty explains:

“The pose for this painting was chosen by Captain S and reflects a memorable and terrifying experience he had as an officer in the Australian Army in 2011. Under constant fire from insurgents in the Helmand Province in Afghanistan, Captain S spent 18 hours taking cover behind a low mud-brick wall.

His body was clad in camouflage uniform and heavy armour with a weapon and communications equipment secured to his back. His fellow soldier and friend had been hit by a bullet in the upper leg early in the battle behind the same low wall. From his position behind the wall, Captain S not only commanded aircraft gunfire, he also coordinated the landing of the medical helicopter in order to evacuate the seriously wounded young soldier.”

Ben Quilty - The Art of War

The maturity of Quilty’s ability is clearly well beyond his years. At barely 40 years of age, Quilty’s best work is surely ahead of him.

Share on TwitterShare on Facebook

David Ackley

David Ackley writes about Australian art & design and enjoys sharing the creative scene “Down Under” with an international audience.

Author: David Ackley Tags: art, artists, iu, war Category: Visual Art and Visual Poetry March 6, 2013

You might also like:

Ripple by Havel-Ruck Projects
A Carving Process: Ripple by Dan Havel and Dean Ruck
Rik Lina Art
‘Leporellos in Black and White’ by Rik Lina
Merlin Flower - Rubbish (detail)
When there is nothing, there’s the cup of coffee
Illuminescence - Poem by John O'Kane
Illuminescence by John O’Kane

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept the Privacy Policy

 

DONATE TO BLACK LIVES MATTER

BLACK LIVES MATTER

The EM newsletter

Receive fresh poetry, reviews, essays, art, and literary news every Wednesday!


Empty Mirror

Established in 2000 and edited by Denise Enck, Empty Mirror is an online literary magazine that publishes new work each Friday.

Each week EM features several poems each by one or two poets; reviews; critical essays; visual art; and personal essays.

Subscribe Submissions Support

Recent features

  • My Father’s Map
  • On Waiting
  • Seeing Las Meninas in Madrid, 1994
  • Visual poems from 23 Bodhisattvas by Chris Stephenson
  • Historical Punctum: Reading Natasha Trethewey’s Bellocq’s Ophelia and Native Guard Through the Lens of Roland Barthes’s Camera Lucida
  • Panic In The Rear-View Mirror: Exploring The Work of Richard Siken and Ann Gale
  • “Art has side effects,” I said.

Books

Biblio
© 2000–2023 D. Enck / Empty Mirror.
Copyright of all content remains with its authors.
Privacy Policy · Privacy Tools · FTC disclosures