Art Ew - National Gallery of Australia

Apuatimi learnt by assisting her husband with his art-making
and had her first solo exhibition in 1991. She has created
a striking series of large canvases especially for Culture
Warriors, which include figurative representations of tutini
and pukumani objects, and body painting. A tiny figure, she
nonetheless has a powerful presence, accompanied by a
wicked sense of humour, declaring herself ‘a famous artist
now’, through her inclusion in Culture Warriors.
Philip Gudthaykudthay, one of the last conversant
Liyagalawumirri speakers, was born c. 1925 and is a
senior custodian of the Wagilag creation narrative.
Gudthaykudthay’s totem is Burruwara, the native cat,
which has seen him endowed with the nickname of
‘Pussycat’. In 1983 Gudthaykudthay was the first Central
Arnhem Land artist to have a solo show at a contemporary
gallery, Garry Anderson Gallery in Sydney, making him
possibly the first Aboriginal artist in Australia to hold a
solo exhibition in a contemporary artspace.
Although consistent in his artistic output, since being
awarded an artist fellowship from the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Art Board in 2006, his creative wellspring
has been replenished, and he has produced a
magnificent series of badurru (hollow logs) for Culture
Warriors in his characteristically elegant and spare miny’tji
(clan body design) and rarrk (cross-hatching), quite
distinct from the larrakitj and lorrkon from Yirrkala and
Maningrida, respectively.
I’m botj [boss] here. Ramingining … Me, number
one painter … Right up from painting, Milingimbi,
Ngangalala, Ramingining, Maningrida, now come
here, Ramingining. Stop here. Number one painter
here. Bark, finish ‘im up here; canvas, finish ‘im up
here. Hollow log. All painting here. Me, number one.
John Mawurndjul is a member of the Kurulk clan of
Kuninjku-speaking people of Western Arnhem Land. He is
without doubt the most renowned Kuninjku artist working
today, with an international reputation and lauded as a
‘maestro’ by former French president Jacques Chirac at
the opening of the Australian Indigenous Art Commission
for the newest Parisian museum, Musée du quai Branly,
in June 2006.
My work and my rarrk (cross-hatching) have
changed a lot since I started painting a long time
ago [late 1970s]. That was with my brother [Jimmy
Njiminjuma] and together, we have changed the
rarrk and started to paint in a new style. We are
new people … Now, I concentrate on painting
important places, my land, my djang [sacred places].
I paint the power of that land … I keep thinking, I
keep finding new ways, new styles for my paintings.
I just can’t stop thinking about my paintings.
Mawurndjul’s representations of Mardayin and sites
associated with his traditional country of Milmilngkan –
on bark and hollow logs – have become increasingly
refined in his expert use of rarrk. Inspired by great classical
Kuninjku artists such as Peter Marralwanga (Mawurndjul’s
wife, Kay, is Marralwanga’s daughter and an artist in her
own right) along with Yirawala and his elder brother Jimmy
Njiminjuma, Mawurndjul’s artistic and cultural mastery
was acknowledged when he was awarded the Clemenger
Contemporary Art Award in 2003, and honoured in the
solo exhibition Rärrk: John Mawurndjul journey through
time in Northern Australia at the Museum Tinguely, Basel,
in 2005.
John Mawurndjul Kuninjku
(Eastern Kunwinjku) people
Billabong at Milmilngkan
2006 natural earth pigment
on bark 200.0 x 47.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra
Arthur Koo’ekka
Pambegan Jnr
Wik Mungkan/Winchanam
peoples Face painting 2006
natural earth pigments
and hibiscus charcoal with
synthetic polymer binder
on canvas 56.0 x 168.0 cm
National Gallery of Australia,
Canberra
artonview spring 2007 23