Australian Aboriginal Artists Working in Traditional Modes
Artists' Statements
As a child, Malcolm Jagamarra traveled on walkabout with his mother and family in a traditional way. At that time, children were being taken from their families as part of the Aboriginal Assimilation Program, to be placed in white communities. Malcolm's mother hid him in the bush until he was discovered at age six and taken to Adelaide, where he spent the next 18 years of his life. In 1978, he was reunited with his family in Alice Springs. There he underwent the manhood initiation ceremony he had missed as a boy. That is when he learned the secret songs and dances of his tribe, the Lander River Warlpiri. His art is derived from those ceremonies. He was the first Aboriginal artist to use oils and has been instrumental in creating new directions for traditional art.
Clifford Possum Japaltjarri worked as a stockman on the cattle stations around his traditional country, learning the dreaming trails that criss-cross the area to the north of the western McDonnell Ranges. He began his career as a carver and by 1970 was one of the most accomplished in his medium. He began working in acrylics while living at the Papunya Community and was one of the first artists to be involved in the Aboriginal Art Movement. His canvases, which depict the land geographically, situate strong figurative elements in three-dimensional space. He has made a point of removing any elements of European art from his work, thus laying the foundation for an art based entirely on traditional Aboriginal iconography. His role and his contribution have been further explored in The Art of Clifford Possum Japaltjarri by Vivien Johnson (Craftsman House, 1994).
Barney Daniels Jungurrayi received some European schooling in a settlement outside of Alice Springs, though his early life was spent learning the traditional ways of survival, law, and ceremony. He began painting in the 1980's and was self-taught. His dreamings are totems handed down over the generations from father to son, linking him directly to his dreamtime ancestors. The recurring theme in his work is the cycle of life, death, and regeneration.
Pansy Napangardi was born on the mission settlement at Haast's Bluff in Central Australia and moved to Alice Springs in 1989. She learned her mother's dreamings from her mother's cousin, who sketched them out in the sand. They include Seven Sisters, Hail, Desert Rain, and Two Women. First she worked on collages of seeds, which had more typically been used to make jewelry, then she moved to acrylic on canvas. After observing the work of Johnny Warangkula during the 1970's, she began recording her dreamings. The painting shown here depicts women who are grinding seeds to make bush bread. They are represented by U shapes and are shown seated with coolamons (dishes or vessels), depicted by O shapes.
Ada Bird Petyarre was born on a section of the old Utopia Station at Atangkere. She is a significant member of the group of Utopia women who, beginning in 1977, produced desert designs on silk and cotton using the batik method. The success of this enterprise led to the women's working with acrylic on linen in 1988's "A Summer Project." At this time, Ada began her development as a painter. Her works on canvas express the rituals of her ancient culture, many of them involved with body-painting designs. She paints with linear pattern in subtle subdued colors as well as in bright hues. As a traditional senior woman, she is involved in ceremony and dance. Indeed, her work is one of the last links with women's ceremonial knowledge, which she has used to instruct younger generations in the ways and the land of their ancestors.
Gloria Petyarre lived in the traditional ways before moving to the established settlement of Utopia when, like many other Aboriginals, she was forced to leave the traditional lands. In 1977 the Aboriginal Land Fund Council purchased a 99-year lease in connection with which a Batik program was established to create an income and recognition for participants. Petyarre was one of the original artists employed in this program. Her work gained attention as she made the transition to acrylic paint on canvas. She paints the traditional women-business subjects. However, her work stands out for her use of close tonal values of different colors rather than the huge range of colors used by other women in the community. Her main dreamings are the Mountain Devil, Lizard, Bean, Emu, Penci Yam, Grass Seed, and Small Brown Grass, as well as the traditional body-paint designs worn by women.
Johnny Warrangkula Tjupurrula has lived the traditional desert life, never attending European schools. He uses several layers of dots to depict his dreamings, which consist of Water, Fire Yam, and Egret stories. His distinctive style has become known as "overdotting." "Kulwa, Waterbirds, 1999," the late work shown here, was made despite his failing health and eyesight. It features the imagery of Tjupurrula's dreamings, overpainted to hide the secret and sacred elements; it was inspired by stories of water from the exceptionally heavy rains that fell in Papunya in 1971, the year he began painting. The same rains inspired his "Water Dreaming in Kalipinya" (not shown), which set a Sotheby's auction record in Melbourne for any Aboriginal art work.
Biographies and Acknowledgments
