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"Judgement by His Peers," Gordon Syron, Oil on Canvas, 93 x 124 cm, 1978, $AUD 1.5 million.
"This painting is my most meaningful work. It is the story of my life. This trial happened to me. I challenged the jury system of Australia. I asked that I be judged by my peers and your peers are your equals. I asked to have some Aboriginal people on my jury. One lawyer said that I wasn't black enough to be black the other lawyer said I wasn't white enough to be white. They then argued this point in front of me for sometime. Both my parents were Aboriginal. It was such an insult to me and my family. I was judged by an all-white jury. (If you are a pink fella then according to British law and now Australian law, you are entitled to have a pink person on the jury.) I served a life sentence." - by Gordon Syron
Gordon Syron has chosen to sell his masterpiece, "Judgement by His Peers." It is offered here for sale for the first time by Elaine Pelot-Syron & Gordon Syron T/AS Black Fella's Dreaming Gordon Syron Aboriginal Art Gallery.
"By simply making white man the accused, confronting an all black judicial system, Judgement by His Peers, reveals an impartial legal system to be a massively unfair exercise in power."
Phillip Morrissey also arranged for this artwork to hang at the ICAC, George Street, Sydney.
Of the painting Bruce James commented in the Sydney Morning Herald, "His clarity and briskness of attack and humanist imperative underpinning every brushstroke result in narratives of exceptionl force. The names of Nita Blankett, Misel Waigana, Jimmy Njanjii, Maxwell Saunders and others are commemorated in pictorial epitaphs with a bitter edge. His figurative style has the candour and vitality of grafitti, often crude, occasionally clumsy."
Prints at "Black Fairies on the Ropes"
Artist Gordon Syron presenting Mr. Michael Mundine
with a print of Judgement by His Peers
Artist Gordon Syron with Dr. Merideth Bergman and
Photographer Ms Elaine Pelot Syron
At the Black Fella's Dreaming Museum art exhibition for Gordon Syron, " Fairies on the Ropes," Mr. Michael Mundine and Dr. Merideth Bergman were presented with prints of, "Judgement by His Peers." Dr. Merideth Bergman officially opened " Fairies on the Ropes." Dr. Bergman was the Speaker of the House of NSW Parliament at the time in 2006 and has since retired.
Today, 6 July 2007, the launch date of this Web Site, Gordon Syron is presenting a speech called, "Living with the Invasion," a further exploration of the consequences of the history of a disenfranchised people. He is planning to say,
""JUDGEMENT BY HIS PEERS," is "The Real Australian Story." I painted this in 1978 while serving a life sentence in prison. I believe I would not have been sentenced at all, had I been judged by an Aboriginal jury.
In British law each man is judged by his "peers." When I asked to have one or more Aboriginal people on the jury well one lawyer said, I wasn't black enough to be black, and another lawyer said, I wasn't white enough to be white. This was so disrespectful to my family, especially to my 2 Aboriginal Grandmothers. So now when someone says to me, "You don't look white, or you don't look black," I just say, "are you calling me a half a WOG, are you????"
"JUDGEMENT BY HIS PEERS," oil on canvas, painted in year 1978 is for sale now on my Web Site..." - Gordon Syron, National Museum Canberra, 6 July 2007.