Painter, photographer and filmmaker George Gittoes heads to Kyiv today in order the capture the development of the war in Ukraine.
George Gittoes has dedicated his life's work to exposing the atrocities of war, spending more than four decades documenting some of the worlds most notorious conflicts.
"Australians care a lot about what they're seeing happening over there, and the reason for me going is to express that.”
George Gittoes has been described variously as a pop artist, a figurative artist, a modernist and a post modernist. Ultimately he is a documenter. Through drawing, painting, film making and the written and spoken word he reflects and tells the stories of what he has seen and experienced.
"I'm creating a product that lets the world know how much people really do care about what they're seeing - the human suffering."
Acclaimed as one of Australia’s most important artists, Gittoes has been recognised for his humanitarian and peacemaking efforts and has been awarded an Order of Australia (AM) and in 2015 he was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in recognition of his life's work in contributing to the peace making process.
His work has been collected by the Queensland Art Gallery, the State Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, the Powerhouse Museum and the National Gallery of Australia.
Gittoes is twice the recipient of the Bassel Shehadeh Award for Social Justice (awarded at Syracuse University, New York, in October 2013 for Snow Monkey and in 2019 for White Light)
In 2020 Gittoes received honorary membership to the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans' Association Inc.