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'George Gittoes defies categorisation as his life defies belief. One thing is certain: Gittoes is the greatest Australian hero working today and his epic story must be told.
'Equal parts artist and warrior, George is world-famous for waging war on war with art, circus, photography and film. "Soldiers die for flags. For me it is art," he says.
'George has been shot, stabbed, bombed, beaten, tortured, drowned and jailed. He has worked with Andy Warhol, dined with Fidel Castro, plotted with Julian Assange, been feted by Mandela, blessed by Mother Theresa, sneezed on by the Dalai Lama.
'Blood Mystic begins with George flying back to Jalalabad carrying a letter from the Taliban threatening to chop off his head and show the decapitation on live TV. George's mission is to film with street kids in the most dangerous city on earth - the Ghostbuster street exorcists, the Snow Monkey ice cream boys, the urchin girls and kuchi kids, the child gangsters with razor blades under their lips.
'As the danger grows, George reflects deeply on a life less ordinary - his boyhood being groomed as a gangster, his escape to New York, the Yellow House art revolutions, crazy brave adventures in outback Australia, ghetto America, jungle Nicaragua, war-torn Cambodia, badlands Baghdad, hollow Bosnia... and beyond. ' (Publication summary)
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Works about this Work
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Through The Contemporary Darkness
2017
single work
criticism
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2017; 'George Gittoes is an autobiographical artist, almost to an obsessional degree, and like his life-long hero, Vincent van Gogh, he is an artist in whom the audience is required to believe, particularly in the sincerity of his autobiographical narrative. ' (Introduction) -
Art and Life in World's Trouble Spots
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 30)
— Review of Blood Mystic 2016 single work autobiography
-
Art and Life in World's Trouble Spots
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 30)
— Review of Blood Mystic 2016 single work autobiography -
Through The Contemporary Darkness
2017
single work
criticism
review
— Appears in: Sydney Review of Books , February 2017; 'George Gittoes is an autobiographical artist, almost to an obsessional degree, and like his life-long hero, Vincent van Gogh, he is an artist in whom the audience is required to believe, particularly in the sincerity of his autobiographical narrative. ' (Introduction)
Awards
- 2017 shortlisted APA Book Design Awards — Best Designed Full-Illustrated Book Under $50 designed by Daniel New.
