George Gittoes - last sitting before Peshawar

George Gittoes AM (b. 1949), artist, photographer and filmmaker, has documented some of the world's most notorious conflicts. He studied at the University of Sydney and in 1970 was a co-founder with Martin Sharp of the Yellow House cooperative in Potts Point, Sydney. During a stint in the United States in the late 1960s, Gittoes became interested in making art with a strong social and political statement, leading to the body of work that has since established his reputation. His powerful images explore his personal concerns with war and violence in places such as Cambodia, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Israel and Palestine. From 2011 to 2015 he and his partner Hellen Rose worked in Afghanistan, setting up the Yellow House Jalalabad to create a safe space for artists, performers and filmmakers. There Gittoes made a number of documentaries and films, including Snow Monkey (2015). His 2019 film White Light documented Chicago's gang violence. Gittoes is represented in most major public collections in Australia and his work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and publications. In 1992 and 1995 he was awarded the Blake Prize for Religious Art, in 1993 the Wynne Prize, and in 2015, the Sydney Peace Prize. He published an autobiography, Blood Mystic, in 2016. Gittoes has said he believes in making art which is accessible and 'readable' to a wide public and that there is 'a role for contemporary art to challenge rather than entertain: my work is confronting humanity with the darker side of itself'.

Collection: National Portrait Gallery
Gift of the artist 2008
© George Fetting/Copyright Agency, 2021