Do you ken the girl with the Ken Done tote?
Yes I ken the girl with the Ken Done tote.


Do you ken the boy with the Ken Done-esque shirt?
Yes I ken the boy with the Ken Done-esque shirt.

Donestore

After clicking 'done' you can return to your post and publish to your blog.

Davida Allen
Lovers on Ken Done Sheets 1989
Oil on canvas
98x98cm

It is a conversation that you have and have with the family or as you meet people who don't do art, but over the last couple of years I've started to say that I like him, I say things about Pierre Bonnard, maybe its a stretch, but give it a go its funny to try and reverse the conversation, the cringe is to easy, and too cultural cringe of ourselves, and as the rest catches up with hating him its too easy to join just in. art seems to be a bit more able to be happy or involved with being from from Australia at the moment, and it's not just funny to like Done, but also too funny. I'm looking forward to Fergus Binns at Uplands. Kate

I ws talking to Matt H about this blog the other day, and he was saying he'd had that same conversation with his family just recently - it's the ur-Done conversation.
I was also talking to a 21-year-old about Ken Done who pronounced his name as 'dun', as in, done. Nice.

The Spectre of Ken

Had the following conversation over the family dinner-table on Saturday, as we ate ersatz Christmas-roast lunch...
(Paraphrased):
Dad: I've been looking at your new blog about Ken Done, I'm not sure I understand it.
Me: Ah, yes. Ken Done's awful. He's great.
Mum: You shouldn't be nasty about Ken Done. He's done very well for himself. He made millions.
Me: Yes, I know he has. But anyway didn't he lose all his money? My friend Kate told me he had been scammed by his agent and lost all his money.
Kerry (sister): He's still around though, didn't he design all that Australis stuff, you can still get it.
Mum: He's good, Ken Done.
Me: He's interesting. He's a sellout though.
Leif (nephew): I just did a big school project on Ken Done, I wrote an essay about him.

I was talking to a woman down in Tasmania earlier this year about Ken Done doona cover/pillow slip sets; she had scored some really cheap because they had minor imperfections. 'Ken Done', she said, 'you either love him or hate him - and I love him.'
A lot of Ken Done's work makes me feel slightly nauseous to look at. The garishness; the aspects of Australian culture which it seeks to glamorise; the gauche banality of it; the disciple-like outward-looking approach; the valorisation of Matisse, Gauguin et al.
Occasionally though, he comes out with something good, in his moments of weakness - or, more accurately, moments in which he perceives himself to have failed...