image of person or book cover 8653224553805516986.png
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Blood Mystic single work   autobiography  
Issue Details: First known date: 2016... 2016 Blood Mystic
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'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

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Pan Macmillan Australia , 2016 .
      image of person or book cover 8653224553805516986.png
      Cover image courtesy of publisher.
      Extent: 399p.
      Description: illustrations (chiefly colour), portraits (chiefly colour)
      Note/s:
      • Published: 25th October 2016
      ISBN: 9781743534809

Works about this Work

Through The Contemporary Darkness Sasha Grishin , 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)
Blood Mystic By George Gittoes Lynne Lancaster , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , November 2016;

— Review of Blood Mystic George Gittoes , 2016 single work autobiography

'George Gittoes has more lives than an extra lucky cat!'

Art and Life in World's Trouble Spots Owen Richardson , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 30)

— Review of Blood Mystic George Gittoes , 2016 single work autobiography
Art and Life in World's Trouble Spots Owen Richardson , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 10-11 December 2016; (p. 30)

— Review of Blood Mystic George Gittoes , 2016 single work autobiography
Blood Mystic By George Gittoes Lynne Lancaster , 2016 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , November 2016;

— Review of Blood Mystic George Gittoes , 2016 single work autobiography

'George Gittoes has more lives than an extra lucky cat!'

Through The Contemporary Darkness Sasha Grishin , 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)
Last amended 26 Feb 2020 10:20:09
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