2023-gallery-gondwana-website-draft

Climate Change in The Pacific

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:38:34 GMT

Featuring Fijian Contemporary MultiMedia Artist ‘Rusiate Lali’ in an exhibition opening the Climate Change in The Pacific…

13 September - 20 November 2017

Hot on the heels of the 2016 Fashion Show by The London Pacific Fashion Collective, with the Lalini Collection, Rusiate Lali opened the 2017 London Pacific fashion show with the art exhibition called Climate Change in The Pacific.

In conjunction with the UN Climate Change Conference in Germany presided over by the Government of Fiji in November, 2017 Rusiate’s works will be showcased at the Fiji High Commission in London.

Dates of the show were :

13 Sept - Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Woolwich Hall), London UK : 3pm - 6pm

15 Sept - National Liberal Club (Lloyd George Room/Lady Violet Rooms), London UK : 3pm - 7pm

16 Sept - 20 Nov - Fiji High Commission London UK : (10am - 1pm)

Shining Forth - Colour Power

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:36:48 GMT

Shining Forth - Colour Power Exhibition proudly presents works by some of Australia’s leading aboriginal artists.

01 - 30 April 2018

These selected works from Gallery Gondwana, highlight the use of colour, from intimate to bold, from delicate to kapow.

Proudly presenting the following artists:

Mitjili Napanangka Gibson

Geraldine Nowee

Judy Napangardi Watson

Pamela Napurrurla Walker

Linda Napurrurla Walke r

Alma Nungarrayi Granites

Jorna Napurrurla Nelson

Elizabeth Nyumi

Margaret Baragurra

Bessie Liddle

Abie Loy Kemarre

Kathleen Ngale

This exhibition highlights the variety of dynamic styles and unbridled colour that dominates indigenous art today.

Whilst there are many familiar names - Judy Napangardi Watson, Yannima Tommy Watson and Lucy Napanangka Yukenbarri, to name three. It is enthralling to discover younger artists stamping their presences including Eileen Napaltjarri, Lance Peck, Keith Stevens, Sylvia Ken and Tjungkara Ken.

What is interesting about these artists, and it’s a point Raffan makes well, is that even though they might not seem on the surface to be depicting journeys across country, if the paintings are read correctly then the ongoing connection to land becomes apparent, as does the connection to tribal law, which is often present even in the most decorative of their paintings. One of the most exciting artists, and one whose work reflects the melding of the old and the new, is Sally Gabori. She uses expressive abstract techniques on large linen canvases, often as much as three metres wide by two metres high.

Power + Colour: New Painting from the Corrigan Collection of 21st-Century Aboriginal Art more than lives up to its title. Its main theme has two elements vital to indigenous art; tribal law and the continually stunning and inventive use of colour to depict country and culture.

Honouring Dorothy Napagardi

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:30:20 GMT

"All of our dancing belongs there. When I paint I think of the old days, as a happy little girl knowing my grandfather’s Dreaming."

14 June - 31 December 2018

Gifted artist Dorothy Napangardi was tragically killed in a car accident in 2013 after a day spent doing what she loved most - hunting out bush, surrounded by family and friends.

This exhibition looks back on some of the diverse works by one of Gallery Gondwana’s key artist, Dorothy Napangardi. The works presented are from Gallery Gondwana’s Collection and are being released for sale.

Dorothy was one of the leading artists of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement, and had the honour of being the 2nd indigenous artist to be given a solo survey exhibition at the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Sydney. The exhibition for Napangardi was held from 10 Dec 2002 to 9 Mar 2003 and traced 11 years of her painting career from 1991 to 2002.

In 1998 Dorothy was awarded the Northern Territory Art Award. She was then awarded the Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award twice – for Best Painting in Western Media in 1991 and for the overall category in 2001. Napangardi’s prize winning work in 2001, Salt on Mina Mina has been recognized as a masterpiece. In 2002, Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art honored Dorothy Napangardi by giving her a solo exhibition, entitled Dancing Up Country: the art of Dorothy Napangardi.

A highlight in the art calendar for 2018 was the Dorothy Napangardi retrospective exhibition at The Seattle Art Museum (SAM).

Walkabout: The Art of Dorothy Napangardi Walking becomes a rhythm that adjusts to each landscape we cross. Translating that rhythm into paint became a goal for one artist who walked hundreds of miles across her homeland. Dorothy Napangardi was born in the Tanami Desert of Australia, where a crystalline salt-lake region played a powerful role in her life. She spoke of the unconditional happiness and freedom she felt when she traversed her family’s country and slept beside them with stars as a canopy.

A gallery filled with her paintings from 2000–13 takes us to the shimmering salt lake, where she absorbed indigenous laws and stories from the land and her family. Her individual style of intricate dotting can suggest a vast aerial perspective or a microscopic maze.

These beautiful works, are a testament of an artist who reputation continues to grow. The paintings re-defined the art of minimalism. Someone who felt the spirit and captured it in the physical. Tales of the past, told for the future.

From small delicate works that capture the minutiae of the dreaming to the huge canvases that pulled the viewer into its landscape, so it was without any traditional iconography from her familial lines, Dorothy created her own innovative language to portray “her country”.

Her paintings are created by an intricate network of lines that collide and implode on top of each other creating a play of tension and expansion, transporting the viewer through a myriad of intersections. Her view constantly changing: one painting giving an aerial perspective; the next as if she has placed a microscope to the ground.

With a highly experimental and very individual painting style, Dorothy elaborated on the traditional designs of the kurawarri (dreaming). Her paintings focused on her ancestral country, Mina Mina, which is a highly significant sacred site particularly for women, as it is the point of origin for Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming) for not only the Warlpiri but also for the Kukutja whose traditional lands are to the west.

Language of Love

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:22:55 GMT

Gallery Gondwana Fiji hosted an exhibition showcasing works from two of Fiji's leading artists Rusiate Lali and Arvin Sukul.

17 August - 14 September 2019

We welcome you to the Language of Love.

An ancient tale since the heart of time.

Language of Love
An ancient tale since the heart of time
Rusiate Lali and invited artist Arvin Sukul come together
to present a wonderland of intriguing paintings
celebrating the magic of love in visual language.

A Window on the Macrocosmos

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:20:10 GMT

This fabulous and successful show was extend until January, 2021.

14 June 2020 - 31 January 2021

DE 11 LIJNEN Groenedijkstraat 1, Oudenburg, Belgium has a beautifully curated show of masterpieces by Dorothy Napangardi, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Kathleen & Gloria Petyarre.

“This singular conception of the Aborigines, for whom past, present and future merge, is a kind of permanent state of grace, concentrating the vital energy of all Creation.”

– Prof. A.P. Elkin - The Australian Aborigines (1954)

A Window on the Macrocosmos

June 14 - September 30, 2020

Exhibition Extended to 30 November, 2020

enter the online exhibition here

DE 11 LIJNEN
Groenedijkstraat 1
84 60 Oudenburg
Belgium

T. +32 59 27 07 57
www.de11lijnen.com

The Art and Life of Dorothy Napangardi

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:17:23 GMT

2020 Retrospective Exhibition

18 September - 27 October 2020

Japingka Aboriginal Art, Fremantle/Perth, Western Australia had a successful 2020 retrospective exhibition for Dorothy Napangardi (1952- 2013) that showed the artist’s journey towards the refined style of the later Mina Mina paintings that established her career as an outstanding artist.

Click here to view: The Art and Life of Dorothy Napangardi - 2020 Retrospective Exhibition

View the artist and her accomplishments: Dorothy Napangardi – Groundbreaking Australian Artist

This 2020 retrospective exhibition for Dorothy Napangardi (1952- 2013) shows the artist’s journey towards the refined style of the later Mina Mina paintings that established her career as an outstanding artist. All artworks from the exhibition are available for sale, comprising 36 paintings and 11 limited edition prints.

The earliest work dates back to 1997 where we see the first aspects of the Mina Mina story painted between 1998 and 2001.

From these early compositions we see the structural elements that are transformed into large visions of Mina Mina ceremonial site. The artist develops and reworks the subject in paintings spanning the years 2003 to 2009. In 2002-2003 the artist’s work was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney in an exhibition titled Dancing Up Country.

The exhibition honours the life and art of Dorothy Napangardi.

The first such exhibition was held at Seattle Art Museum in 2018.

This exhibition is presented with the support of Roslyn Premont of Gallery Gondwana, whose long association and promotion of Dorothy’s artwork has given so much to this story and to this tribute exhibition.

Rusiate Lali Solo Exhibition 2021

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 00:11:22 GMT

A fresh exciting online show for 2021 from the master painter in Fiji.

From the sombre images of a pandemic that flashed around the world and out of the tears of 2020, we welcome you to the online Rusiate Lali Solo Exhibition 2021.

In this stunning masterpiece, the artist Rusiate has spent time on creating a work that hits you in the face and then demands that you linger slowly over every centimeter of his canvas. His masterly use of mixed media is taken to new heights.

From his exquisite use of colours, to the hidden symbolism and the fine details that demand you come in close and then pull back to take in the entire landscape.

What can we say, that even before the exhibition was launched, the painting that launched this exhibition is SOLD.

Commissions taken - directly from the artist.

Understanding Limited Edition Prints

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:25:35 GMT

Collecting ‘Limited Edition Prints’ is enjoyed by people everywhere.

How you come to collecting can range from falling in love with your first original etching, the work speaks to you, being able to acquire affordable original artwork, to developing a passion for this style of art and artist.

Whilst price and future value can be what drives a collector, for many, it is the ability to own an artwork that has been created with direct involvement of the artist and often together in collaboration with a printermaker.

Choosing a Limited Edition Print requires special attention.

The following information is for those entering into this field and developing a passion for Limited Edition Prints. You can then view our selection of limited edition prints by searching through this site.

Fine art prints are original works of art - multiple originals.

"A common misconception about creating fine art ‘prints’ is that the art work produced is an unaltered copy or reproduction of an ‘original’ art work such as a painting or drawing. This misunderstanding is sometimes further exacerbated by the the fact that these ‘prints’ exist as multiples, in a numbered edition.

Like those presented in Northern Impressions, original fine art prints are printed by and, with consistency and accuracy being essential qualities; this process honours the integrity of the artist’s intended work, regardless of whether their marks display an inspired rawness or meticulous refinement. The tactile nuances of human touch are barely detectable yet still suffuse each individual print as an original work."

Extract from Northern Impressions - a celebration of contemporary printmaking and Artback NT

The terms ‘Original Print’, ‘Limited Edition Print’, and ‘Reproduction Print’ are terms to describe a printing technique.

The term ‘original print’ has come to mean work created directly on the plate, stone, block, or screen by the hand of the artist, printmaker or both. The print is the original – the plate or master image being produced by the artist, whilst the printing is often handed to an experienced printmaker.

Usually, the image on the matrix (what the print is produced from) is a mirror image or reversed image of the finished work. This requires the artist to think and work on a reverse or mirror image (not necessarily an easy thing to do for some artists).

Etching: Etching is a method where images or designs are made by cutting or acid etching into a metal plate. The difference with engraving is that the engraver works directly onto the plate with an engraving tool, whereas the etcher covers the plate with some acid resistance substance ( like wax or varnish ) first, draws the design into that with an etching needle, and then sinks the plate into an acid bath. The acid “bites” into the exposed areas of a plate, whilst the protected areas remain untouched. The plate is cleaned and then covered in ink. Before printing, the surface ink is wiped off so that ink remains in the bitten design areas. Paper is placed on the wet surface of the plate and they are passed through a press.

Lithography: In this process the design is drawn or painted onto the surface of a stone or metal plate as if they were paper. Lithographic ink can be applied with a pen or brush. When the drawing or painting are finished, they are fixed onto the surface by wetting with a sponge dipped into a solution of gum arabic and a small amount of acid. The gum protects the surface from any further grease, while the acid opens up its pores so that the gum can penetrate. Before ink is applied, the surface is moistened with water, which is absorbed by the untouched parts of the surface and repelled by the greasy drawing or painting. A roller covered in heavy, greasy ink is passed over the surface. The wet parts rejects the ink, while the greasy parts attracts it. Paper is the placed on the stone or plate and they are passed through a press.

Editions: Each print that is produced is technically a unique work, and as such are usually signed and numbered (in pencil), as a multiple of a whole. Written as a fraction eg 1/50, 2/50, 3/50 etc, this is called the ‘edition number’. The technical term for this is ‘monoprint’. The ‘original print’ is usually produced as a limited number of impressions. The term for this group of prints is the ‘edition’. Although an edition has many of the same image, each print is an individual part of the whole, the whole being the edition. An ‘original print’ is actually one piece of a multiple original work of art.

Printing evolved as artists adopted various printing techniques to produce multiple images of their work. These techniques developed separately from the technology of mass production printing. Engraving, etching, woodcuts, lithography and screen printing were originally cutting-edge technology but are now almost solely the preserve of artists who have become known as “printmakers”.

‘Reproduction Print’ are photographic reproductions of the original work and whilst they can have large runs, an artist can limit the run, number and sign each reproduction.

Limited edition prints were traditionally signed and numbered in pencil. Pencil was used as it doesn’t fade easily and it is difficult for a computer to reproduce pencil, making it less vulnerable to fraud. However, with all the different types of paper and surfaces available and used today, pen may also be used for editioning and signing.

AP - Artist Proof: Historically the artist proof had a different meaning than it does today. In the early days of printmaking, the first prints of an edition were of a higher quality. The re-using of the printing plates would gradually wear them down, that caused a decline in the quality of the edition’s production. These first prints of the press were often kept by the artist.

As printing technology has advanced, the quality of a print is no longer an issue. Each print in a giclee or off-set lithograph edition is identical. The Artist Proof’s are now exactly the same as numbered copies of the print edition (run), albeit in a smaller print edition. In some instances the artist may create an AP as a working trial.

The numbering sequence of artist proof differs from the limited edition, as the number is preceded by the letter “AP”. The artist is usually the owner of the Artist Proof edition, and because it is unique, the Artist Proof edition are sold at a slight premium.

For the discriminating collector, the Artist Proof prints are more valued due to their restricted quantity.

Kinship - the web of inter-connectedness

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:22:54 GMT

Skin names - relationships to each other and country.

Relationships in Aboriginal society are quite complex – my ‘skin’ name is Napurrurla. Years ago when I received this name I did not know what was involved with the living of it. Your skin name is a way of placing you in the community – it determines your responsibilities - who you care for; who you can turn to and ask for support, who you can be close friends with and marry, and those that you have to avoid.

It was artist Pansy Napangardi who gave me my name in 1987 when I came to Alice Springs from working at Aboriginal Arts Australia in Sydney to run the Alice Springs outlet, The Centre for Aboriginal Artists. This was the first of the five government galleries, established in 1972 as an outlet primarily to market the fine craft from the Pitjantjatjara homelands.

Pansy was one of the first women to be represented by Papunya Tula Artists. We had met when she had visited the Sydney gallery and she was very welcoming when I arrived in Alice Springs, introducing me to many of her friends and relations and took me and my partner out bush hunting. Discovering the magic of the Central Australian landscape was intoxicating and I was immediately hooked.

As time went by, I used to wonder why there was so many Napangardi’s surrounding me – then I realised, I am their mother! This involves me in responsibilities to the individual and the families. Dorothy Napangardi was one of these women and even though we were the same age, she always referred to me as ‘mother’. Introductions to others were always started by how we were related in the kinship system - this is your auntie, your grandmother, your father etc. It was sometimes funny to see an old woman called my granddaughter etc. as an example but this made real sense to them.

In the Central Australian kinship system there are 8 names in this web of inter-connectedness - there are 2 circles of four names. The women’s start with N whereas the men start with Tj or J - i.e. Napangardi’s brother would be Tjapangardi or Japangardi depending on the language group (Pintupi or Warlpiri etc).

In European culture we tend to value peoples worth by what they have accumulated, what they own. In Dorothy’s culture she is judged by what she has given and how she supports. Through her work she supported a large extended family, her friends and the community, maybe close to 150 people. People can look at Aboriginal artists and if they are famous and their work sells for high prices, wonder why they do not have expensive houses, many possessions and large bank accounts, maybe they think that they are not receiving the money from the work and imagine galleries perhaps were not dealing honestly. The monies do go to the artists – and the money does its job of supporting the family and community, in their culture – which has a different base to our own more individualistic society which values the dollar beyond the community.

If it takes living on the edge to be a great artist then bush Aboriginal artists know what it is to live on the edge, even when they are recognised and rewarded for their work they are obliged to live in fringe camps, subject to domestic violence, even when it is not personal they are surrounded by it. They do not have stability, tranquility or space to make plans for the future. What they do have is a big family with all the good and the bad:- this family is part of a web tracing the past back to where they come from, their ancestors still live in the landscape - the landscape you see mapped in the work.

This work may be an overview of the county extending hundreds of kilometres, or it may be a close up of one rock or one salt pan. Each of the works they produce is part of this vision, this dreaming, as part of the web of the family tracing its roots back to the ancestors. The complexities of these relationships with family and country can be seen in the work of Dorothy and her daughters as an example.

Dorothy is a Napangardi, she has her own country of Mina Mina, her daughters are Nangala they trace their country back to their fathers which is Pirlinyanu. Napangardi country is Mina Mina, which is close to the great salt lake of Lake Mackay in the Northern Territory near the boarder of Western Australia.

This county is part of the Karnta kurlangu Jukurrpa which is an important Women’s Dreaming, her paintings sometimes trace the journey of ancestral women as they traveled from the east to the west in the dreaming singing the landscape into existence as they went. When they arrived at Mina Mina which are salt lakes surrounded by sandhills the songs they sang caused desert oak trees to come out of the ground and the first digging sticks were born.

All Napangardi’s paintings concentrate on various aspects of the country from the salt incrustations around the salt lakes, bush fires through spinifex country in the black and gold works here and the wind blowing in the sandhills where you can feel the wind shifting the sand. The straight lines are the upright desert oak trees, and the little hooks you see throughout the paintings are women, a subtle reminder that these women are still in the landscape.

Her daughters, Julie and Sabrina are Nangala, this skin group is responsible for the water dreaming (Ngapa Jukurrpa) their country Pirlinyanu is a rocky outcrop which is an important link in the water dreaming. What you see in their work is the cluster of rocks and you can feel the storm brewing with the clouds and the onset of the storm, often you will see little openings in the work which if you could read them in relation to their country it would give you the instruction of what rocks to move to have access to fresh water.

This country is about halfway between the community of Yuendemu and Mina Mina (Dorothy’s Country) and you could easily travel by this rocky outcrop and not realise its significance. Sometimes sacred sites can be as simple as a lone tree. One thing is certain. All paintings have meaning and are connected to the land and the artist’s connection to it. In the ancestral period, known as the Tjukurrpa or Dreaming, this land was shaped by creative spirits that originally came out of the earth or sea and their spirits remain there today so therefore these places are deemed sacred.

As an artist, you cannot paint any subject but only the stories that your kinship is related to. However, you are not restricted in expression and are free to have an individual approach with regards to colour and design as you celebrate the spirit and its relationship to land.

It is certainly an honour to have worked in this field for more than 30 years and to be continually stimulated by it.

Desert Oaks (Allocasuarina decaisneana)

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:16:01 GMT

The Desert Oaks of Central Australia is a significant tree in Aboriginal culture.

The majestic desert oak tree is one of Central Australia’s iconic trees and plays a significant role in Aboriginal dreaming. The Desert Oaks offers shade in Mina Mina country, an important women’s dreaming site where they gather for ceremonies, and is found painted into aboriginal art of the central and western deserts. It is a major subject and can be found depicted in the works of artists from art centres such as Warlukurlangu in Yuendumu as the central story, “Desert Oak Dreaming”.

Internationally renowned artist Dorothy Napangardi references the desert oak in many of her major works.

"During the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt / niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks that had emerged from the ground from the desert oak trees (Allocasuarina decaisneana) which continue to grow today."

The kurrkara (desert oak) and Kurrkara Jukurrpa (Desert Oak Dreaming) often reference a major women’s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina. As custodial owner of Mina Mina, many of Dorothy Napangardi’s artwork depicted her “Country” of Mina Mina.

Other artists such as Judy Napangardi Watson often depict the Ngalyipi (snake vine), which grows along the trunks and boughs of desert oak. This vine is sacred to Napangardi and Napanangka women.

The desert oak tree (Allocasuarina decaisneana) is a majestic looking tree reaching up to 12 metres in height, when mature. It has a thick, dark brown bark, that is deeply fissured. Combined with its long needle like foliage and woody cone fruit, what makes this plant even more distinctive is the juvenile form of the tree. In its juvenile state, the young tree has an erect thin, straight truck with numerous branchlets growing out of it and bear a resemblance to a feather duster. It bears male and females flowers that are borne on separate trees (dioecious).

The trees are often found in dense stands or forest, in arid desert region, often between red sand dunes. Visitors to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and Rainbow Valley can see some fine examples of these trees in their different stages of growth.

The foliage in the juvenile tree is prickly, deterring grazing animals from eating it. During this early stage the juvenile plant send down a strong tap root, searching for the water table and a more reliable water supply. They then start to change into their adult form of the tree sending out side branches and transforming into the weeping form.

The trees themselves have a number of other adaptations for survival, especially after fire. These include a thick bark and the ability to produce epicormic shoots (this type of growth regenerates from an epicormic bud that lies underneath the bark of the tree), and the production of a huge amount of seeds, that like other Australian plants are assisted by bush fires in germination.

The Anmatyerre Kinship System

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:12:48 GMT

The term ‘skin-name’ is used in relation to the kinship systems of the Australian Central Desert/Western Desert.

The word ‘skin’, which is possibly a corruption of the English word ‘kin’, signals a person’s place in the entire social structure.

There are fixed rules in Anmatyerre/Alywarr (and indeed, all Indigenous Australian) society regarding the ways in which people in particular relationships are permitted to relate to one another, including who may or may not marry each other.

Outside of those preferred marriage choices, other unions are regarded as incestuous or ‘wrong skin’, and are frowned upon even in these comparatively flexible days.

These rules apply equally to both men and women.

The ideal choice for a marriage partner is a man’s second cousin.

In the event of failing to find a suitable marriage partner from such a ‘first choice’ relationship, for example because of a lack of suitable partners with the marriageable age group, a man may marry his mother’s brother’s daughter, i.e. his cross cousin. Such unions are colloquially referred to as ‘right skin’ marriages. However, these days, under the influence of Western norms of ‘romance’ there are increasing numbers of ‘love matches’, much to the chagrin of many of the older people. However, so deeply ingrained is the taboo against incestuous relationships, that even these ‘love matches’ still almost always involve partners within the ‘right’ skin groups, i.e. people who are in the ‘correct’ relationship to one another.

Membership of a particular ‘skin group’ is determined by the skin group membership of one’s parents and forebears.

In addition, membership of a particular ‘skin group’ is of great relevance to each individual artist’s possibilities for artistic production - there are powerful sanctions against painting subject matter over which other skin groups hold “intellectual copyright’.

Particular skin groups have the right to painting particular Dreamings, and must refrain from painting subject matter owned by or belonging to other skin groups. These intellectual property rights translate into ‘real’ property rights, that is, land ownership of specific tracts of land, which are always associated with specific individuals or groups of individuals based on the intricacies of the kinship system.

What is distinctive about the work of Ilyente women artists

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:10:00 GMT

An essay by Dr Christine Nicholls.

There are now up to three generations of renowned Anmatyerre/Alywarr artists working from Ilyente (Mosquito Bore) in Central Australia.

What is quite clear however are the quality of the younger women work is that they are still being well-schooled in their traditions and Dreamings by the older women, who take their traditional educative responsibilities in relation to the rising generation very seriously indeed.

The young women artists’ work not only demonstrates their in-depth knowledge of their own Dreaming iconography, but importantly, the aesthetic quality of their work is without questionable. These works appeal both to the heart and the mind.

As ‘purely’ aesthetic objects (if indeed, Aboriginal art works can ever really be considered in such a way) each and every painting has been carefully composed, and evinces compositional harmony and balance.

Indeed, as a collectivity these works of art bring to mind the immortal lies of English poet John Keats, words which were penned in a context which could not be more different from that of the youthful Ilyente women artists:

‘beauty is truth, truth beauty’, that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know’ (Ode to a Grecian Urn).

The artists of Ilyente offer us the truth of their Dreamings, and a glimpse of the profound beauty of their own physical and cultural landscape.

The Women Painters of Ilyente: or, home is where the art is

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:06:45 GMT

A Catalogue Essay by Dr Christine Nicholls.

History

In the late 1970’s a group of Anmatyerre and Alywarr Aboriginal women from the Utopia region in the Northern Territory of Australia, whose land is situated about 275 kilometres north east of Alice Springs, began learning the techniques of batik print-making at an adult education course provided by the government.

Not long after that, the same group of older women, who have consistently emphasised the connection between Indigenous art and land, became key claimants in an eventually successful claim for Anmatyerre Freehold title over the Utopia Pastoral Lease. In 1979 the land around Utopia was formally returned to its traditional owners.

The young women painters are the daughters, nieces, grandnieces and granddaughters of the same group of women who embarked upon batik-making and painting in the late 1970’s.

The members of these younger groups have learned their Dreamings as well as their artistic techniques from those pioneering older Anmatyerre and Alywarr women artists, and are active in carrying on the traditions of their foremothers and forefathers.

The Utopia Women Artists

The work of the Utopia women artists has been well-documented (see, for example Brody 1989, 1990a, 1990b, and Boulter 1991). As well as the astonishing collective success of the Utopia women artists in batik making and acrylic art, Australia’s (arguably) most famous woman artist, the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye emerged from their ranks when she was already into her late seventies.

Kngwarreye literally took the Australian and international art world by storm, an amazing feat for one who was not only positioned at the extreme margins of the dominant Australian culture, but was also so advanced in years.

The Utopia women artists have also had an important impact on the Australian Indigenous art scene insofar as they have to a certain extent upset the dominant paradigm and entrenched white beliefs about how gender relations are organised in traditionally-orientated Aboriginal society.

To give but one example, a prominent white Australian male anthropologist and doctor spoke for many others of his ilk when, as late as the 1970’s, he famously and disparagingly commented that he considered Aboriginal women to be little more than ‘feeders, breeders and follow-the-leaders’ (Cawte 1974).

Since then feminist scholars (notably Bell 1983, Dussart 1989, and Glowsczewski, 1988 and 1989) have amply demonstrated that Indigenous Australian women are frequently leaders in their own right, and that their social power extends to realm of the sacred, as well as in secular matters. It is better accepted nowadays that Aboriginal women are not the passive, powerless, oppressed group that some white male anthropologists would have us, or like us, to believe.

This is borne out in the case of the Utopia women artists, who dominate the artistic scene in their own geographical regions. Comparatively few men have taken up painting in that particular region, and even fewer men have experienced the levels of success of many of the Utopia women artists. The art which the Utopia women produce and create, like other Indigenous Australian art, needs to be understood within the category of the sacred and religious, known in Aboriginal English as ‘The Dreaming’. The Utopian women are empowered to paint special Dreamings as a matter of heredity. This all-important concept of ‘The Dreaming” will be discussed in the next section.

The Dreaming - part of a Catalogue Essay

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:04:45 GMT

This all-important concept of "The Dreaming" discussed by Dr Christine Nicholls.

It is important to understand works of art in terms of the particular logic which produces them, and essential to any real understanding of Indigenous Australian art, which first and foremost needs to be understood as religious art.

An analogy could be drawn to the art of the Renaissance, chichis impossible to understand without some reference to Christianity. In the same way, the Indigenous religious concept of “The Dreaming” needs to be evoked in order to understand the art.

“The Dreaming” is in fact a poor and trivialising translation for this complex and all-embracing concept, which encapsulates Aboriginal Law, and the Creation time of the Ancestral heroes, a time which, unlike the Biblical Genesis, is not believed to be finite, or to have occurred in the past, but to be ongoing, extending into the past, present

and future.

“The Dreaming” also refers to the rituals, ceremonies and other associated artistic practices which are utilised to evoke that time of Creation.

Indigenous Australian people “own” (in the copyright sense of “own”) or “manage” particular Dreamings, as a matter of inherited rights deriving from their fathers, grandfathers and mothers - for example as Anmatyerre artist Gracie Morton Purle (Utopia) owns the bush plum Dreaming. In effect, this means that she and a limited number of other people are the only ones permitted under Anmatyerre law to reproduce the images associated with the bush plum Dreaming.

It is considered a capital offence under Anmatyerre Law to reproduce the “Dreamings” of others without permission. Each of the paintings is a representation of a particular Dreaming.

Note on Orthography - part of a Catalogue essay

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 08:02:44 GMT

A standardised system for writing a specific language. Numerous orthographies have been applied to Australian Aboriginal language; to some extent this is dependent on 'linguistic fashion'.

Numerous orthographies have been applied to Australian Aboriginal language; to some extent this is dependent on ‘linguistic fashion’.

In the Anmatyerr/Alywarr ‘skin’ system, using currently accepted orthography are organised as follows:

Alywarr: Kngwarreye, Petyarre, Purle, Kemarre
Anmatyerr: Kngwarreye, Penance, Peltharre, Pengarte, Perrurle, Ngale, Kemarre, Mpetyane

Note that both men and women can be addressed by these kinship terms, and that both systems derive from what is known as the Arandic system (that is, they are based on Arrernte kinship classifications).

As for the spelling of ‘Kngwarreye’, the accepted orthography (cf ‘Emily Kame Kngwarreye”)

The spelling systems of these previously unwritten languages must be regarded as still under consideration. What also needs to be taken into consideration is the fact that a good deal of the dispute or argumentation over the spelling systems of these language amounts to little more than competitive posturing among non-indigenous linguists.

Other examples of spelling the language group or skin names are found to include:

Anmajera, Anmatjerre, Anmatyerre, Anmatyerre
Ngawarai, Kngwarray, Kngwarreye, Kngwarraye,
Apetyarr, Pitjara, Pijara
Peltharre, Peltharr, Petyerre, Petyarre
Perrurl, Perrurle, Purle, Pwerl, Pwerle

My auntie has country too…

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:57:57 GMT

Women hold powerful positions in the Aboriginal community as nurturers.

They also have the freedom to express themselves as they get older as they are considered, wiser, stronger and are more respected and more powerful.

While traditionally the domain of men when the contemporary art movement began in the early seventies in Papunya, by the mid eighties the excitement of the art movement gained momentum and was spreading throughout the desert into Yuendumu, Lajamanu, and over to Balgo Hills in Western Australia.

By then women had started to paint not just the infill on their husband’s work but to paint their own canvases. However, many so-called specialists thought that women had no country of their own and that women’s work had less meaning.

“Women have country - my aunties have the right to paint”…

One day when I was working in the government gallery in Alice Springs in 1987, an Italian professor, who was a so-called specialist about Australian indigenous culture, was asking me why we had paintings by women on the wall as it was really only men that had the right to paint.

Whilst we were looking at these paintings and had our backs turned to the door we didn’t see or hear the artist Michael Nelson Jakamarra come in. Michael had been listening to this Italian professor and interrupted saying “Women have country - my aunties have the right to paint”.

Incredibly the professor continued to tell Michael that this was incorrect and that women didn’t have this right. Exasperated, Michael raised his eyebrows and left returning only later to laugh about this man from another place that was telling him about his culture.

It took years after that incident before I truly comprehended the depth of what Michael meant by his saying that his aunties have the right to paint.

They are of course the sisters of his father and this is how traditional ceremonial knowledge is passed on – from auntie to niece. Not from the mother (who is responsible for upbringing in general) but from the father’s sisters.

That he mentioned his auntie was the correct relationship – acknowledging his father’s sisters – had equal but different rights.

Part of the reason early male anthropologists believed women didn’t have their own law, their own stories is either because they didn’t ask or because they couldn’t be given information about women. In one account an anthropologist is describing a ceremony where the men are painted up and dancing. He describes the magnificence of the men but goes on to say that it was disturbing however that there was this old woman dancing upfront suggesting that she was a mad woman. Little did he realise of course that she was one of the most important parts of the ritual. An old woman often leads law men in certain ceremonies.

Largely initially due to the interest in the beauty and power of Aboriginal art, we have become interested in the people who have created this great work: where they are from, how do they live, what are their beliefs, how are and were those beliefs sustained. We have grown to learn more about the culture and they have interacted with us more and learnt more about us.

We have crossed boundaries. Not too soon of course. In 2017, it is now 50 years since the Referendum in 1967 and we still have a long way to go. In general though there is a willingness on both sides for this to happen.

I remember a period in the early nineties, when I had opened Gallery Gondwana, some people were saying that as the old men were dying (the first men to paint) that the movement was finished and that we were seeing the last of the really good work. They had no idea what was in store for them. Of course now the rest is history - an old women of eighty had just began painting and she was to change the way the world looked at this art movement. She took it from being viewed as ethnographic to contemporary art. Emily Kame Kngwarreye is her name and she changed the landscape.

Women artists have come a long way. Another strong and individual personality to emerge at this time was Linda Syddick Napaltjarri , whose work is hugely admired particularly in academic circles. She crossed boundaries and challenged our perceptions consistently. The stepdaughter of Shorty Lungkarta, one of the first men to paint when the movement started and a close family member of the last tribe, her work is a mixture of religious fusion and her fascination for ET, the Spielberg movie she has seen over 20 times.

There are artists that work in close proximity and are therefore influenced by each other whereas there are other artists that work more in isolation, exploring the boundaries of their practice in a more contemplative way.
Dorothy Napangardi was one such example with a highly individual style that depicted unique patterns, primarily in a monochromatic palette, of landscape and with the optical play of lines and dots that shimmer and sparkle, of that which exists beyond the world that we know purely on this physical level.

The MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) in Sydney did a survey show in 2002 of the previous 11 years of her work and selected paintings from varying periods of her career to create an exhibition which explored the changing nature of contemporary indigenous art on an individual basis (there is a wonderful catalogue still in print from this exhibition). 1

At the opening of the Survey exhibition the Director of the MCA, Elizabeth Ann McGregor acknowledged Dorothy as one of Australia’s leading artists, indigenous or non-indigenous.

“I sung it”

I have so many memories of artists comments over the past 30 years of working in Alice Springs. One such artist was Rosie Nangala Fleming, one of the first women to paint in Yuendumu and who was responsible for the Women’s Museum to be built in Yuendumu to house women’s ceremonial objects.

In the late eighties, whilst still managing the government gallery, I made a comment to her – ‘hey Rosie, another one of your paintings has just sold – people really love your work’. She said ‘of course’. At first, I was a little taken aback by what appeared to be an over-confident attitude as in western society we are taught to appear more unassuming.

Then as the conversation progressed I understood she was referring to the energy and power that the paintings possessed, the rich content that informs their work and that comes from a deep spiritual base. Within the artists’ very fibre of being there is a sureness and certainly about their work. She said “I sung it”. She had sung this painting in the same way that the world was sung into existence by the ancestors when the world was young and that she had repeatedly continued to do during ceremonies.

She was referring to the fact that we not only see these paintings, we feel these paintings. You don’t have to understand the content to appreciate and to feel them.

She also made the comment that we are drawn to the paintings we are meant to live with.

Sometimes paintings also need to changed around. There are times when some paintings need to take a rest and our senses stimulated by something new.

In the same way that the ancestors awakened the spirits under the earth when they sang the world into existence, artists of today awaken our spirits with these works of extraordinary visual power. We have much to be grateful for. A particular thank you here to all the aunties!

Honouring and Remembering the Art and Life of Dorothy Napangardi

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:45:00 GMT

Come on a journey to introduce you to the person behind the art, so you can visualise and understand more about her nature, her family and her life.

Dorothy Napangardi is internationally regarded as one of the leading exponents of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. Tracing a period of time from 1987-2013, this autobiographical journey of Dorothy Napangardi and Roslyn Premont - two close friends told through the storybook of Roslyn’s photos, notes and memories.

When Dorothy started painting in the late ‘80’s, she used feathery strokes and vibrant colours and her subject matter consistently primarily of ‘mukati’, the bush plum and ‘yuparli’, the bush banana, two important food sources that grow throughout the desert. In 1991, she was awarded ‘Best Painting in Western Media category’ at the Telstra Aboriginal Art Award. and in 1998 the Northern Territory Art Award with an example of spatial depictions of bush food and country.

In 1999, after an epic journey back to her homeland as an adult, with a convoy of aunties and traditional owners to ‘dance up country’ in ceremony, Dorothy returned with a huge amount of subject matter, inspiration and confidence. The ensuing work marked a major shift in her painting style.

Review of Dorothy Napangardi Retrospective

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:36:45 GMT

Napangardi’s remarkable life, which would take her from the desert to the United States and put her work in galleries and private collections around the world, is the subject of a landmark retrospective at Fremantle’s Japingka Gallery for the next five weeks.

By Alison Wakeham, The Sunday Times Magazine, 20 September, 2020, Posted 20 September 2020.

Dorothy Napangardi would often paint sitting on the ground, legs tucked underneath her, cup of tea at hand and guided by a talent so great she would go on to write her name in the stars alongside Australia’s finest artists.

Features

Check out the feature review Remote Control by Alison Wakehamin Sunday Times Magazine:

Napangardi’s remarkable life, which would take her from the desert to the United States and put her work in galleries and private collections around the world, is the subject of a landmark retrospective at Fremantle’s Japingka Gallery for the next five weeks. It is the first comprehensive survey spanning her celebrated career and includes many works never shown publicly. It also traces her relationship with her manager and close friend, Roslyn Premont, whose work with Napangardi at Gallery Gondwana in Alice Springs help set the artist on her historic course.

Tjukurrpa

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:30:06 GMT

Aboriginal art is not confined to its traditional forms. What makes it so exciting is that it is continuing to evolve.

(Excerpt from ‘Tjukurrpa – Desert Paintings of Central Australia by Roslyn Premont and Mark Lennard, Published by the Centre for Aboriginal Artists in 1988).

This is encapsulated by Barney Daniels Tjungurrayi’s paintings on pieces of furniture like the chair and the televisions set that he did for the Australian Bicentennial exhibition in 1988.

Here he adapts his painting style to three-dimensional forms. His statement on this work is that even if confined to an urban society, it is the dreaming that is all-important. He never loses sight of his link with the land.

It is this total respect for the dreaming, therefore the environment, and the intimate knowledge of animals, plants, seasons that has allowed Aboriginal people to live for tens of thousands of years in areas that appear to be so inhospitable. This knowledge of the land is passed down from the ancestors through the art in a symbolic visual language.

What may appear to be abstract expression to the European eye is in reality a narrative – enacted upon the artist’s “country”.

To those who can interpret, the ideograms depict in a symbolic language, stories of the ancestral beings of the Dreamtime, Tjukurrpa and by extension the social codes, land and food.

Traditionally, elaborate ground drawings in the sand were constructed for ceremonial purposes. These were accompanied by sacred dance and song performances that occurred in cycles. Body paint and decorations were worn. As the performers enacted these sacred ceremonies, they became on with their totem, their ancestor, their creator.

Depending on the ceremony, only those with the correct level of initiation and knowledge could attend. The ritual could last several days. When they finished the sand painting was destroyed as not be viewed by the uninitiated eye. These sand paintings could cover a very large area and meant a good deal of preparation and organisation. There was the plant down, feathers and ochre to be collected. Red and yellow ochres, white lime and black charcoal were, and still are, the traditional colours for ceremony.

In the early 1970’s at Papunya, a transition from this traditional sand painting to the contemporary movement took place although it should be stressed that the sacred and secret traditional ceremonies and ground designs are still made at the appropriate times. Papunya is a government settlement that during this period housed many different peoples and language groups brought together from a nomadic desert life in the sixties. Many had never been in contact with white people before.

The art movement was first stimulated by Geoff Bardon, a teacher at the school in Papunya was was attempting to achieve some semblance of ‘aboriginality’ in a school mural by using geometric shapes and symbols such as circles and zig-zags. Intrigued, some of the older men came closer and upon encouragement, took over the task, completing a traditional design over the whole wall.

Other murals followed and the interest and fervour of the men to paint their Dreamings grew until up to twenty artists were producing available scraps of Masonite and board, and grinding ochres or obtaining pain from Bardon, producing many paintings in completely traditional symbols.

Although immediately appreciated by European audiences they caused some Aboriginal concern and a reassessment by the artists. After the artists had held lengthy meetings the use of some symbols and the realistic portrayal of some particularly sacred objects were subsequently omitted from the paintings. In the enthusiasm for the new medium and pride in what the recognition and appreciation of was most dear to them, their Dreaming stories, the painters had inadvertently revealed too much and they drew back, seeking a compromise. (by J. Isaacs ‘Australia’s Living Heritage’ p217). The paintings were thus adapted and edited accordingly so that outsiders could see them with safety.

Each symbol used in a painting has several meanings; it is therefore only the artist who can interpret his or her work completely. At this point one should understand that each artist can only paint themes relating to the dreaming he or she has inherited. This is the traditional form copyright.

Access to the different levels of interpretation that exist within a painting depends on the degree of initiation. An example of this is the witchetty grub legend that tells on a simple level of women gathering witchetty grubs for food and which on a deeper level is the story of the transformation from a young boy into a man.

The deeper level of understanding is considered secret-sacred and therefore usually not told by the artist. This certainly does not detract from the beauty of the work.

The transition to canvas in the early seventies enabled the artists to use the paintings as an educational tool. In the past children learnt from songs, from their mothers, from male relatives, from explanations of body paint designs and from finger drawing in the sand.

As they grew older they learnt more from the ground designs during ceremonies. Elders have been concerned that this knowledge would be lost.

As they moved away from their traditional lifestyle and went to school, and the non-ceremonial context in which it was provided in the home, the new medium has provided them with an opportunity to pass on their heritage.

Another aspect of course is that paintings are an important source of income. Since the mid seventies many people have returned to the land preferring the life of the small outstations to that of the larger settlements.

Many artists have been very active in the outstations movement and have use the - money earned from their paintings to purchase equipment and transport enabling them to resettle on their homelands.

Often senior men emerge from the desert, canvas tucked under their arms. They proudly unfold this before us in the gallery like a magic carpet. This is the only income that they can earn with a sense of freedom. They display the painting saying “I’m a free man”, “this one private canvas”. The income from art enables Aboriginal people to follow their dreaming tracks to organise or attend sacred rituals and epic song cycles often hundreds of miles away, often a costly business.

Ownership of 4 wheel drive vehicles is of paramount importance. Some say there is a new dreaming, “Toyota Dreaming”.

Contemporary Aboriginal: Central and Western Desert Art

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:27:12 GMT

The expanding central and western desert art movement began in Papunya in 1971 and these mesmerising paintings continue to delight audiences from all over the world.

Whilst coming from a very traditional starting point many artists have developed their individualistic style and are working in a highly contemporary style.

Whether the iconography of the paintings have origins in body painting, ground painting designs or highly significant decorations of ceremonial objects, the connection to country is at the heart of all paintings that are traditional Dreamings (sacred law) for which the artist is the custodian.

They depict the stories of Ancestral beings who travelled during creation times singing the country into being.

The natural environment with its site-specific features (rocky outcrops, caves, rockholes etc.) where specific events happened and where ancestors camped are linked through Songlines and connect people with their country and with each other.

Even if the secret sacred “inside” meaning of the paintings is not revealed, through their visual language artists are able to communicate the vibration and intensity of their emotional experience to the viewer. As in all great art, you feel these paintings as well as see them.

As most of the paintings are depictions of country and land formations viewed from an aerial perspective (as if we climbed high on a hill and looked in each direction), they can be hung either on the vertical or on the horizontal.

By the late 1980’s not only had this exciting new art movement gained momentum in Northern Australia, such as the Kimberley, Arnhemland and the Tiwi Islands, but state galleries, museums and art collectors had begun to acquire works as well as incorporating Aboriginal Art into major exhibition schedules.

Commercial galleries had also established a presence and would play a vital & powerful role in the ongoing development and marketing of the Contemporary Aboriginal Art Movement. In 1990, one such gallery which opened its doors in the heart of Australia was Gallery Gondwana.

Under the enthusiastic and visionary directorship of Roslyn Premont, (who previously managed the government gallery 'Centre for Aboriginal Artists' in Alice Springs) Gallery Gondwana committed itself to nurturing and advancing the work of both established and emerging indigenous artists from the Central, Western and Eastern desert regions as well as showcasing the best work of indigenous artists throughout Australia but also include the finest in Australian design and arts from the Asia and Pacific region.

The work of Gallery Gondwana artists (which comprises an exclusive group of cutting edge artists such as 18th NATSSIA Award winner Dorothy Napangardi and Dr George Tjapaltjarri) has featured in major national and international exhibitions, broadening the awareness and appreciation of audiences throughout the world.

Artists were provided with studio space encouraging and supporting experimentation as each artist explores the boundaries of their practice.

Back to Country trips were regularly facilitated by the gallery allowing artists to visit significant Dreaming sites which provide invaluable stimulus and inspiration for their painting practice.

The Contemporary Aboriginal Painting movement of Central Australia has evolved well beyond the crude house paint, composition board and lino of the early Papunya years. It has now been accepted & absorbed into the broader spectrum of Contemporary art in general, such as major state galleries and institutions playing a key role in purchasing major works by way of their own acquisition policies, hence acknowledging the cultural and artistic values of Contemporary Aboriginal Art.

Regional differences in art styles

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:25:08 GMT

Aboriginal art is a rich and diverse cultural tradition that spans many different regions of Australia.

Each region has its own unique art styles that reflect the local environment, culture, and spiritual beliefs of the Indigenous peoples who have lived there for thousands of years.

For example, the art of the central desert regions often features dot painting and intricate patterns, while the art of the coastal regions may incorporate marine life and sea colors. Tiwi art is characterized by bold, geometric designs and bright colors, often using a technique known as 'tapa' to create repeating patterns. Tiwi art is often used in ceremonies and storytelling, and is closely tied to the Tiwi people's spiritual beliefs.

Watercolour painting is a more recent addition to Aboriginal art styles, but has gained popularity in recent years. This style is characterized by using watercolour paints to depict traditional Aboriginal themes and motifs, often incorporating vibrant colors and intricate patterns. Watercolour artists often come from a range of Aboriginal cultural backgrounds, and the style has become popular as a way to express traditional themes in a contemporary medium.
Regional differences in Aboriginal art styles demonstrate the richness and diversity of Indigenous cultures across Australia.

Art of the Western Desert

Western Desert Art has developed through a number of phases over the years which have been marked by changes in style, technique, type of imagery and even palette.

Several well known Western Desert artists that have worked in the Gallery Gondwana Studio are Walala Tjapaltjarri and ‘Dr’ George Tjapaltjarri along with Barbara Reid and Ningura Napurrula.

In 1994 a number of senior Kintore women had joined the Western Desert art movement. The women (many of whom) brought with them their very own highly distinctive style which contributes towards a dynamic and innovative art movement, one which continues to dominate the field of Contemporary Aboriginal Art today.

Art of Central Australian Desert

Some 300kms north of Alice Springs in 1983 in the traditional land of the Warlpiri, emerged Central Desert Art or alternatively known as Yuendumu Art.

Unlike its sister community Papunya, the painting movement at Yuendumu began in a more subdued manner by way of senior Warlpiri women decorating small artefacts & canvas boards, an exercise encouraged at the time by research anthropologists Francoise Dussart and Meredith Morris.

As a result of strong cohesion amongst Central Desert artists, the 1990’s onward have seen Yuendumu artists undertake significant large collaborative paintings as well as maintaining a major interstate and overseas exhibition programme.

Art of the Eastern Desert

The Eastern Desert Art community of Utopia, home to both the Anmatjera and Alywerreye language groups. Located some 230 kms north-east of Alice Springs, Utopia arose out of a vast cattle property and not a government settlement or mission station.

Instead of a central community being established like many of its other regional neighbours, Utopia residents prefer to live in small outstations or camps close to their ancestral country and is the source of their main artistic inspiration.

With a number of younger and talented Utopia artists now painting and achieving great success in the field of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, the Eastern Desert’s artistic heritage will be guaranteed for some time yet.

Art of the Tiwi

The art of the Tiwi people in Melville and Bathurst Islands is unique. About 1500 to 1600 people currently speak the Tiwi language - a sign of cultural strength and continuity in the face of social change.

Tiwi art can not be subsumed within mainland Aboriginal art: it is separate and distinct as the Tiwi have always considered themselves to be. The word Tiwi means, “we people”, as if other human beings are outside their frame of reference, or worldview.

The Watercolour tradition of Central Australia

‘Albert Namatjira used light in a dramatic, but not theatrical way. He used it as an all-revealing, all encompasing presence. His distances are not backgrounds, but integral parts of the landscape’.

The landscape or watercolour tradition of Central Australia continues to survive with many of its Aboriginal inhabitants valuing its watercolour painting as an ongoing part of their cultural heritage. Watercolours now take their place with other contemporary Aboriginal art forms, such as acrylic paintings, fibre art, barks paintings, batik and works on paper.

Aboriginal Spiritual Life

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:21:54 GMT

The spiritual life of Aboriginal people centres on the Dreaming which provides the great themes of art.

During ceremonies, one becomes one with the ancestor as the various song cycles are sung and dances performed enabling continued fertility of the land, plants and animals. Amongst them is important water dreaming ceremonies, significant ceremonies to mourn a deceased person and those of love magic, enabling success in love and teaching the right social group to marry.

Handed down from generation to generation, these ceremonies are an important learning tool and strong bond which helps place people in context and more deeply understand their place in society.

Women’s business or ceremony, found in many desert cultures, is essentially of increase or fertility rituals.

The entire continent of Australia is covered by an intricate web of Dreamings. Some Dreamings relate to a particular place or region and belong to those who live there, others travel over vast distances and connect those whose lands they cover.

Among the major Dreamings are Ancestral beings such as the Wandjina and Rainbow Serpent; all figure in major ceremonial cycles.

The powers of these supernatural and ancestral beings are present in the land and in natural species, and also reside within individuals. They are activated by ceremony and nourish generation after generation of human descendants.

An individual’s links with the ancestral beings in the Dreaming and his or own spiritual identity are expressed through totemic associations with natural species and phenomena, ritual songs, objects, dances and graphic designs.

Ceremonies

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:16:44 GMT

For both men and women, ceremonies are a very important focal point of life within a community and are held for different purposes, but always to keep culture strong and to pass on knowledge of various Dreaming stories.

Handed down from generation to generation, these ceremonies are an important learning tool and strong bond which helps place people in context and more deeply understand their place in society.

Women’s business or ceremony, found in many desert cultures, is essentially of increase or fertility rituals.

Introduction to the Origin...

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:13:01 GMT

Introduction to the origin and the early occupation of Australian Aborigines and the Contemporary Aboriginal Painting Movement of Central Australia.

It now seems, as further paleontological evidence comes to hand, that Australian Aborigines are believed to have arrived on this continent at least some 70,000 years ago when sea level was about 75 metres below its current height. Travelling by watercraft from South-East Asia, they supposedly entered the continent by way of Timor and Papua New Guinea.

They were a hunter and gatherer society, occupying a variety of land habitats – snow country to the south of the continent, desert terrain throughout the outback regions of Australia, and rainforest along the coastal fringes and highland regions of Australia’s north.

It is estimated, when European settlement began in 1788 some 300,000 Aborigines were living throughout Australia in distinct cultural groups and were collectively speaking up to 300 languages along with some 600 dialects, sadly, only a minority of these are in existence today, most of which are found in the more remote regions of Australia such as the Northern Territory and Western Australia. The most common language, spoken in Central Australia today is the Western Desert language which consists of several dialects such as Pitjantjatjara, Luritja and Pintupi.

Art of Aboriginal Australia is one of the oldest and the last great tradition of art to be appreciated by the world at large. It remained relatively unknown until the second half of the twentieth century. Inherently connected to the religious domain and generally the concern of men traditional forms of Aboriginal Art were associated with body decoration, bark, ground and rock paintings, ceremonial sculpture and rock engravings. It is in fact, the Dreaming (the period of creation… the period of laying down the laws of social and religious behaviour) which provides the great themes of art, such as the Tingari Cycle which constantly features in the paintings of Western Desert Art.

Under the enthusiastic and visionary directorship of Roslyn Premont, (who previously managed the Centre for Aboriginal Artists) Gallery Gondwana committed itself to nurturing and advancing the work of both established and emerging indigenous artists from the Central, Western and Eastern desert regions as well as showcasing the best work of indigenous artists throughout Australia but also include the finest in Australian design and arts from the Asia and Pacific region.

It was not until the late 1930’s that Aboriginal Art (having long been referred to as Ethnographic Art and relegated to the bowels of museums) began its transformation into twentieth century visual expression by way of the introduction of watercolours to Central Australia.

However, it was nearly four decades later that the real catalyst behind one of the great success stories of Contemporary Aboriginal Art began. In 1971, a young and compassionate art teacher by the name of Geoffrey Bardon was initially sent to the community of Papunya (a dysfunctional government settlement) some 260 kms north-west of Alice springs to teach Aboriginal children art. After a series of events, there resulted in a transference of traditional art forms (by community male elders) onto a range of contemporary media…..

With the introduction of acrylic paint in 1972 (which succeeded ordinary house paint in 1971) and an ever expanding group of artists, the famous art company Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd (also know as the Western Desert Art movement) was established. Before long, much interest and enthusiasm had spread to other Aboriginal communities in the Central & Eastern Desert regions of Central Australia, each of which had developed their own distinctive regional style. Before long, much interest and enthusiasm had spread to other desert communities such as Yuendumu, Balgo Hills, Lajamanu and Utopia, each of which had developed their own distinctive regional style.

Artists were provided with studio space encouraging and supporting experimentation as each artist explores the boundaries of their practice.

Back to Country trips were regularly facilitated by the gallery allowing artists to visit significant Dreaming sites which provide invaluable stimulus and inspiration for their painting practice.

The Limited Edition Prints of Dorothy Napangardi

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 07:04:08 GMT

Artist Stories:
Dorothy Napangardi

In addition to her internationally acclaimed career in paintings, Dorothy also extended her artistic career into the field of etching and print making which saw her create a stunning series of limited edition prints for print makers including Crown Point Press (Dena Schuckit), Northern Editions (Simon White), Port Jackson Press (Belinda Fox) and Basil Hall Editions (Basil Hall).

In the catalog Dancing Up Country: The Art of Dorothy Napangardi, published in 2002 by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Christine Nicholls writes that “Dorothy Napangardi’s success as an artist lies in her ability to evoke a strong sense of movement on her canvases, an effect she achieves because of her remarkable spatial sense and compositional ability.” Nicholls goes on to say that the work “can be appreciated on multiple levels,” though indigenous commentators see painting as “a stage for human activity, rather than seeing the geometric aspects of the work.”

Working with print makers from Basil Hall Editions, Northern Editions, Port Jackson Press and Crown Point Press, Dorothy extended her artistic career into the field of etching and print making, creating a stunning series of limited edition prints.

Master Printers from renowned American print publisher Crown Point Press and Port Jackson Press Australia worked on a major international print exchange project involving leading indigenous Australian artist Dorothy Napangardi. This was the first time Crown Point Press have worked in collaboration with an Australian artist and printer.

"A major international print exchange project involving leading indigenous Australian artist Dorothy Napangardi, and Master Printers from renowned American print publisher Crown Point Press in San Francisco and Port Jackson Press Australia will be launched in the United States and Australia late in 2004.

In the summer of 2004, Dena Schuckit, Crown Point’s senior master printer, traveled to Australia to work with Aboriginal artist Dorothy Napangardi. The text of this Overview was written by her during the three weeks she spent in Australia. Years ago, when Crown Point Press took artists to Japan and China to do projects, I came to understand that the mother of invention is not necessity; it is opportunity.

Our project in Australia came about at the suggestion of Belinda Fox, printer and studio manager of Port Jackson Press Australia, who participated in a summer etching workshop at Crown Point in 2003. She introduced us to Napangardi’s work, and put us in contact with Gallery Gondwana, the artist’s gallery. Because the artist did not think she could make art away from her homeland, Fox and Lotte Water of Gallery Gondwana did the planning needed to bring the project to fruition in Australia. We sent Dena Schuckit there, and she and Belinda Fox worked with Napangardi to make and proof the plates in the etching studio of the National Art School, Sydney. The prints were editioned in San Francisco."

- Kathan Brown
Source: Crown Point Press, Newsletter November 2004

The 2004 collaboration resulted in Crown Point Press publishing a series of her prints and exhibited her paintings and prints in its gallery in San Francisco in an exhibition called:

Dorothy Napangardi: Mina Mina Country
Nine new colour etchings and seven new paintings.
November 18 - December 13, 2004

The Crown Point Press Newsletter Overview, November 2004 issue published a doco diary style article Making Prints with Dorothy Napangardi, An Australian Adventure, from a diary by Dena Schuckit (who was the Crown Point’s senior master printer at the time).

Crown Point Press - Overview: Making Prints with Dorothy Napangardi

As one of the leading artists of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement, Dorothy Napangardi has been awarded the Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award twice – for Best Painting in Western Media in 1991 and for the overall category in 2001; the 1998 Northern Territory Art Award; the honour of being the 2nd indigenous artist to be given a solo survey exhibition at the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Sydney in 2002/2003 (that traced 11 years of her painting career from 1991 to 2002); and honoured by the Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art with a solo exhibition in 2002 entitled Dancing Up Country: the art of Dorothy Napangardi.

With renewed interest in the works of Dorothy Napangardi, following on from the current Dorothy Napangardi retrospective exhibition at The Seattle Art Museum (SAM), USA and exhibitions here in Australia, including our online exhibition of “Honouring Dorothy Napangardi”, we also present “The Limited Edition Works of Dorothy Napangardi”.

Working with some renowned print makers including Crown Point Press (Dena Schuckit), Northern Editions (Simon White), Port Jackson Press (Belinda Fox) and Basil Hall Editions (Basil Hall), Dorothy was not shy in working in the medium of print making, leaving a legacy of stunning limited edition works.

View Dorothy's Artwork

You Get The Picture

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 06:59:14 GMT

Artist Stories:
Vincent Forrester

You Get The Picture
- Solo Exhibition

Vincent paints stories from the Dreaming. His art represents a story and a “spiritual legacy” for his descendants.

Vincent often uses the traditional methods of preparing natural ground-up paint made at Uluru. The same traditional colours used for ceremonial body paint. He sits on the ground at his home in Alice Springs, blending a mixture of ochre, saliva and binder to create a rich red paste. Vincent applies the paste to a large canvas, stretched out in front of him, working slowly across its surface, with both ends of a sable brush.

“This is my country,” he explains, pointing to the two large amorphous shapes, which dominate the centre of the canvas. “Uluru and Kata Tjuta, where my people originally came from.”

Growing up as a stockman and station hand, Vincent came to know his country intimately. His grandfather’s showed him the landscape and told him the stories, associated with his country and Alice Springs, where he became the Aboriginal historian of the area.

His grandmothers showed him bush foods and bush medicine for both Luritja and Aranda country. It was in his teens when working as a cattleman, that the tourism industry was in its infancy and Vincent began working as a tour guide.

He later became a very popular guide at Kings Canyon, a ranger at Uluru/Kata Juta National Park and later a specialist guide at Alice Springs Desert Park.

View Vincent's Artwork

Men of High Degree

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 06:54:48 GMT

Artist Stories:
Barney Campbell Tjakamarra

Barney Campbell Tjakamarra is of the Ngaanyatjarra language group, born circa 1928 at Kaylilwarra south Warbuton in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia. He is a well-respected Pintupi Law-Man, and was “grown up” by relatives when his mother and father died when he was young. His uncle took him to Papunya where he became a man.

Barney’s works faithfully portrays his ‘dreamings’ in a meticulous manner and the ‘classical’ Pintupi style of work.

As a senior law man and elder, Barney had the right to paint the Tingari Cycle stories. These song cycles / creation stories form part of the teachings of the initiated youth, providing the basis for contemporary customs. Many of the stories relate to the sacred sites around the Lake MacDonald area.

These creation stories tell of the epic journey of the ancestors, the Tingari Men and Women who travelled through the land in the Dreamtime (Tjukurrpa) creating particular sites and teaching Aboriginal law.

Barney often worked side by side with Willy Tjungurrayi at Kintore, both are serious painters.

When working in the Gallery Gondwana Studios, Barney would often be heard singing in language by the staff, immersed in the ritual of painting his creation stories, faithfully portraying his ‘dreamings’ in a meticulous manner and in the ‘classical’ Pintupi style of work.

View Barney's Artwork

Retrospective

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 06:49:56 GMT

Artist Stories:
Julie Nangala Robertson

Recent winner of the 2023 Telstra NATSIAA General Painting Award, Julie Nangala Robertson is the traditional custodian of her country Pirlinyanu, a land of rocky outcrops and deep water springs. It is a water dreaming site (Ngapa Jukurrpa) not far from Nyrippi, west from Yuendumu. This is her father’s country.

Born in Yuendumu in 1973, Julie Nangala Robertson is the eldest of five daughters of the late internationally renowned Dorothy Napangardi.

Since the late 1990’s, often in the company of her talented mother, Julie has pursued and developed a creative visual language all of her own, one which consists of a fascinating blend of stylized experimentation and ancient narrative.