Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of the Western Desert Art NGV from September 30 to February 12

Re-creating real-time dreamtime

Robin Usher

September 29, 2011

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Papunya Tula Artists, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, left, and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa at the opening of the Tjukurrtjanu exhibition. Photo: Michael Clayton-Jones

THE international art world was transformed 40 years ago in the most unlikely way with the first paintings on discarded boards by men from remote Papunya, 240 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

''They were paintings of extraordinary power that acted like a super nova at the sudden beginning of the Aboriginal art movement,'' according to the Museum Victoria chief executive Patrick Greene.

Or as one of the original artists, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, puts it: ''We started it like a bushfire, this painting business, and it went every way: north, east, south and west, with Papunya in the middle.'' He was at the National Gallery of Victoria yesterday with fellow veteran painter Ronnie Tjampitjinpa for the opening of a show that for the first time reunites many of the paintings from the original movement, featuring 20 of the 35 foundation artists.

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Wartunuma Dreaming.

The pair were able to see their works again for the first time since they were sold. NGV director Gerard Vaughan said the Papunya efforts kick-started one of the great international contemporary art movements. ''These paintings caught the world's imagination,'' he said.

The exhibition, Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art, includes about 40 paintings from Europe and America among more than 200 on display from private and national collections. Some have never been seen in public before.

They are combined with about 70 artefacts and films from Melbourne Museum illustrating the 1000-year-old tradition of body painting, shield illustration and song-and-dance rituals.

''Never have so many of these works been brought together before,'' Dr Vaughan said. ''It allows people to understand the origins of such an important movement.''

Tjukurrtjanu, or From the Dreaming has been more than four years in the making, and is the culmination of the NGV's 150th anniversary celebrations.

Combined with the Living Water exhibition of contemporary art from the Far Western Desert, it means that much of NGV Australia's Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square is devoted to indigenous art.

''It allows people to see the whole trajectory of the art movement at the same time,'' Dr Vaughan said. ''Such an opportunity will not come again for many years. A show like this is a huge, expensive effort but we have made it free to give people the opportunity see these amazing artworks more than once.''

The first paintings were suggested by art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, who was posted to Papunya in 1971 and found a dispossessed and dispirited community. But once the senior men began transcribing body markings and sand drawings on to discarded boards they began to feel empowered. The following year Bardon supplied them with acrylic paints and canvas, taking the paintings to Alice Springs for sale.

The NGV's senior curator of indigenous art, Judith Ryan, said the Papunya artists created new forms and meanings completely unexpected in the history of the avant-garde.

''The artists give us a new way to see the landscape,'' she said. ''The power of the paintings leave us without words.''

Tjukurrtjanu: Origins of Western Desert Art opens at the Ian Potter Centre:

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/recreating-realtime-dreamtime-20110928-1kxds.html#ixzz1ZOD35YCX

'The Australian' Arts Special

Next week 'Arts Special' in 'the Australian Newspaper' focuses on the Aboriginal Art movement, four decades on. The article starts this Thursday and should be a good read to all those interested in Indigenous art, design and culture.

Bindi Cole, Artist

Black rage, white guilt: Cole has had a skinful

Kylie Northover

September 14, 2011

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Melbourne-based artist Bindi Cole. Photo: Rodger Cummins

Despite the Andrew Bolt court case, the artist is in a forgiving mood.

BINDI Cole says she has forgiven Andrew Bolt. The indigenous artist, who is part of a class action against the Herald Sunjournalist for columns he wrote suggesting ''light-skinned Aborigines'' identified as such for political purposes, has been exploring notions of forgiveness in her new work.

Alongside a mini-survey of past works, her new show Seventy Times Seven features a confronting new video work in which a range of people repeat the mantra ''I forgive you'' over and over again.

''It came about when I was reflecting on my own life. I'd found myself in a place where I was a really broken and damaged person - that was manifesting itself in all these self-destructive ways,'' Melbourne-based Cole, 36, says. ''I had to go through a process of healing and a huge part of that healing was around forgiveness.''

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Cole's work Made for Each Other.

So who or what was she forgiving? ''People from my past, events that had happened - even forgiving generational things. As people we can take on the traumas of our parents, our grandparents …''

And, yes, Andrew Bolt. ''I definitely don't have a resentment and I kind of feel sorry for him,'' Cole says. ''I hope that doesn't come across as being too … worthy, but I've had a lot of time to think about him and what he's doing. I came to the conclusion that … essentially, he's a bit of a bully. We all know that bullies are actually quite broken, damaged people. He's calling me an opportunist … I actually think that's what he is himself.''

Bolt was by no means the catalyst for the work, but Cole says holding on to resentments kept her ''disempowered''.

''As I forgave I was able to take my power back. I feel like there's a real power in this that's … unseen but it's there. It worked for me and so when I was among an Aboriginal community and there were a lot of people who are in states of dysfunction and pain, I thought about the work.''

Cole filmed several people, ranging in age from their teens to their 60s, staring into her camera and repeating ''I forgive you'' until a ''shift'' occurred.

''That shift might be crying or laughing and as people watch this, they have their own experience of whatever baggage they're carrying,'' Cole says.

''I just talked through different experiences with the people [in the work], about what it means, about forgiveness, and then I filmed them. What I ended up with is a film that has captured true experiences of forgiveness. You never see what they're forgiving for, you just see this moment occur.''

Cole - who appears in the video herself - is excited to see how people interact with the piece. ''Everybody here in Australia has some form of baggage around Aboriginal Australia - for some it might be guilt, for some it might be anger … everyone has a reaction,'' she says. ''It's a full-on, powerful piece of work. I think some people will love it and some will hate it - there's probably not much in the middle.''

The work will be shown in a different room to the rest of the exhibition, which features her photographic works from the Post Us series, with indigenous models recreating vintage advertising posters, and her confronting Not Really Aboriginal series of herself and her family in blackface.

Seventy Times Seven marks a shift in direction, Cole says, from exploring identity to reconciling her spirituality. ''What I'm finding is that as I get older, I need to ground myself spiritually and my work is beginning to reflect that.

''Nyah-Bunyar (Temple) [exhibited in last year's Melbourne Festival, and opening in New York soon] explores how urban Aborigines reconcile their spirituality; in Aboriginal communities, spirituality is the priority,'' she says. ''It's something I've been asking myself and exploring. As I change, my artwork is going to change.''

Seventy Times Seven opens tomorrow at Nellie Castan Gallery, South Yarra, until October 8.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/black-rage-white-guilt-cole-has-had-a-skinful-20110913-1k7pk.html#ixzz1YvFqyxUW

Clifford Possom Tjapaltjarri

AN Aboriginal artwork created during the formative years of the modern indigenous art movement has been discovered in a house in New York, where its significance was undiscovered for almost four decades.

Experts believe the picture of three men bedecked for corroboree by Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, a star of the Western Desert art movement, is one of the first paintings by the nation's most collected indigenous artist, who died in 2002.

The 51cm by 35cm board is on its way to Australia and due to arrive in Melbourne on Monday.

It is owned by an American woman who received it as a gift from an Australian family in 1975. The owner's daughter was unsure of the work's significance and asked Sotheby's Australia to tell her if it was Australian or African.

Sotheby's head of indigenous art, D'lan Davidson, said he was contacted last week as he was putting the final touches on the company's catalogue for its Important Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Auction in Sydney on October 18.

Related Coverage

• FEATURE: Brushing up on the art of investment

• Desert movement well on trackThe Australian, 26 Aug 2011
• Sotheby's grooms a Boyd for $1.2m saleThe Australian, 5 Aug 2011
• Auction paints a subdued pictureThe Australian, 30 Jun 2011
• Poor sales trigger art auction rethinkThe Australian, 9 Jun 2011
• Real opportunity for savvy investorsHerald Sun, 7 Jun 2011

• Desert movement well on trackThe Australian, 26 Aug 2011
• Sotheby's grooms a Boyd for $1.2m saleThe Australian, 5 Aug 2011
• Auction paints a subdued pictureThe Australian, 30 Jun 2011
• Poor sales trigger art auction rethinkThe Australian, 9 Jun 2011
• Real opportunity for savvy investorsHerald Sun, 7 Jun 2011

"They had no idea of its value at all," he said of the owners.

The work is thought to have been painted by Tjapaltjarri in 1972, not long after he joined what became the Papunya Tula Artists collective, which was formed in 1971 after schoolteacher Geoffrey Bardon encouraged men at the central Australian community to paint.

Next week, the National Gallery of Victoria will launch an exhibition featuring 200 of the first paintings produced at Papunya in 1971 and 1972 by the founding artists of the Western Desert movement.

The works sparked the genesis of the movement, now internationally recognised as one of the most important developments in Australian art history.

The period from 1971 to 1972 marked a critical turning point when ancient visual Western Desert language was rendered permanent on sheets of composition board and thereby transformed into a new art form.

Tjapaltjarri began painting in 1972 and Mr Davidson said his paintings from that year were particularly valuable because in 1973 he adopted a style he thought was more commercial.

The picture will arrive too late for inclusion in the NGV show but Sotheby's has put it on the cover of its upcoming auction catalogue as Untitled (Emu Corroboree Man) with an asking price of $120,000-$180,000.

Emu Corroboree Man is the title of another Tjapaltjarri from 1972 which scholars claim was the artist's first work. It fetched $412,000 at Sotheby's in 2005, and will be exhibited at the NGV show.

"The two paintings are so similar you could almost say they've been painted back to back," Mr Davidson said.

There are only 13 known Tjapaltjarri paintings from 1972. Tjapaltjarri's vast 2m by 3.5m canvas, Warlugulong, 1977, fetched a record for an indigenous art work of $2.4 million at the top of the market in 2007.

Prices for indigenous art have since fallen considerably but the work found in New York is expected to attract interest from museums internationally.

Had it been discovered in Australia its significance would have attracted export controls preventing it leaving the country.

• Print

Moran Portrait Prize Exhibition 2011, that great paintings provide

Something was missing for me, whilst viewing the Moran portrait prize exhibition and it wasn't the lack of talent or skill which was there in spades.  There was an emotional connection that just did not happen, the missing X factor, that great paintings provide. It was there at the 'Spirit in the land' exhibition where I felt rooted to the spot in front of paintings that made the hairs on the back of my neck prickle
 and stand on end. I just felt that none of the portraits had any real depth of phycological complexity. Somehow the images seemed lifeless,  bleached and static with faces that seemed  botoxed and inscrutable. The essence of the subjects personality or soul were absent. There was no subtly, what you saw is what you got. I found it very interesting. However I felt the images of the Photographic finalists in the the catalogue far more interesting and dynamic, There was humour, pathos/bathos, and a touching humanity.

Bindi Cole, Artist

'Jus drawn', the proppaNOW collective.

"Drawing is something that we do. As Aboriginal people, as Blackfellas, drawing is something we all do. For proppaNOW, it is an action, a tool, and a mechanism that we use to communicate our feelings and ideas and it is the beginning of our art-making processes. It is a human trait to recognise or sense the personal in Drawing. Engaging in and with drawing is to acknowledge the uniqueness we each possess as people and as individuals. But spending time with these works is really a window into how we, as a group of artists interact and engage with each other. As proppaNOW, Jus' Drawn is about the energy, easy dialogue, and enthusiasm that our friendships and familiarity with each other generates. Jus' Drawn is then an idea of who we are, where our ideas are drawn from, where we position ourselves in the scope of what we think is ‘Australia'. Jus' Drawn is what we do and how we imagine ourselves."

Vernon Ah Kee, proppaNOW, 2010.

This is a fantastic artist cooperative showcasing contemporary Indigenous artists, such as Laurie Nilsen, Bianca Beetson Gordon Hookey and Jennifer Hard to name just a few. 

here is the link to go for more information; 

http://netsvictoria.org.au/jus-drawn-theproppanow-collective/?PHPSESSID=hbipkcgeoqg  

Or just go straight to proppaNOW collective.

Rover Thomas and Emily kame Kngarreye

Rover Thomas, (Joolama), Gula Gula (Manking), 1989, Earth pigments and natural binders on Canvas, 90.2 x 180.5 cm.

Emily Kame Kngarreye (Anmatryerre People), Kame Colour 11, 1995, Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 243 .5 x 152.5 cm.

I have been thinking about the exhibition 'Spirit in the Land' and in particular Rover Thoma's paintings compared to Emily Kngwarrey's.. From a gender perspective the two artists exhibit a strong Yin/ Yang polarity, Rover Thoma's strong, bold, simple forms created from natural earth ochres and binders is overtly masculine in tone which speaks with a gravitas that reflects his elder status, history and position within his people. Whereas Emily Kamwarreye is unmistakably feminine, full of swirling colour and bush plum exuberance. Emily's Painting speaks of hope and celebration with plenty of food to share with her family and community.

Gladdy Kemarre and Polly Ngala

'Bush Plum' (Arnekety Dreaming), Gladdy Kemarre,  71 x 84 cm. Acrylics on Belgian Linen 

Dancing Ladies'  Gladdy Kamarre, Acrylic on Belgian linen, 94 x94 cm'

'
At dusk each day, women begin the verses at the song cycle that tells us the ancestor coming to that place. The song 'brings' the power closer, with each verse naming the country or plants and telling of incidents along the way. Women paint their upper bodies with ochre during this phase and sing and 'dance' the Ancestor along. These Ancestors may appear as super powerful humans or in the form of animals such as Ants, or snakes or Kangaroo's.' ( an extract from 'Spirit Country' by Jennifer Isaac's)

Polly Ngala, 'Bush Plum', 2009, 148 x 68 cm, Acrylic on Belgian Linen.

Utopian Artists, Gladdy Kamarre and Polly Ngala produce beautiful paintings based on Their traditional 'Dreaming' (Tjukurrpa) "Bush Plum Dreaming. Polly Ngala is the senior custodian of Bush Plum Dreaming.

        

Utopian Dreaming

Financial Review, Life and Leisure Magazine,Issue 30, Spring, Sue Williams in the Travel section writes,

 "For the traveler from the big city, the visit to MacDonald Downs cattle station, next to the remote Utopia Aboriginal community offers an opportunity  for a glimpse into the lives of some of Australia's most gifted indigenous artists, working on their traditional lands. Mr and Mrs Chalmers have opened their home for visitors to stay and experience for themselves what it is like to live and work in an area that's rich in Aboriginal Culture and pioneer heritage." See more at;  utopianaboriginalart.com.au

Gladdy Kemarre and the Ngala sisters - Kathleen, Angeline and Polly are part of the artists collective in Utopia. These artists have exhibited widely and their works are held in private and public collections in Australia and world wide.