The artist of war
An interview with Australian painter and Archibald prizewinner Ben Quilty
“Making art is a form of activism,” says globally acclaimed artist Ben Quilty, who is currently deeply involved in publishing a book that features drawings by child refugees from Northern Syria, Arak, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.
We’re speaking shortly before his Storyology panel.
“Getting people to care is the core of my art practice. You can’t empathise with someone unless you can get an idea of who that person is, and for me, to humanise these children, is by letting them show me their drawings,” he said.
Quilty’s interest in human beings is fundamental for the direction of his pieces.
He says there is nothing more profound and meaningful than the human condition and simply being. He always comes back to this as the inspiration behind his work.
Quilty’s works from Afghanistan are nationally recognised and featured in the Australian War Memorial.
“The emotion that Quilty has managed to capture in the man’s eyes is exceptional and the overwhelming sense of sadness and loss is palpable,” wrote Naomi Gall in The AU Review.
Quilty depicts the emotional and psychological consequences of war. He shows the people affected, rather than the war itself. As an audience, the works create a snapshot of what the subject was feeling in that particular moment.
“Seeing those things happen is a real privilege, watching history unfold before me.”
Witnessing the relief on the faces of hundreds of refugees as they came to Europe by boat, suffering hypothermia and barely alive, he says, was almost ‘biblical’ to see.
What enables Quilty to cope with the images he sees, he says, is the response he gets to his paintings.
“The opportunity to go away, to respond and to tell the world in a way that has some effect is very therapeutic,” he said.
