Step 4: Interpretation We hope this approach has Shorty Jangala Robertson, Warlpiri, They unleashed a great thunderstorm enhanced your exploration and born about 1935, Yuendumu, Western that ultimately created the large un- Interpretation involves bringing enjoyment of this painting. If you Desert, Northern Territory derground wells that are represented your close observation, analysis, by the repeated concentric circles. A Closer Look like, you can try this method and any additional information Ngapa Jukurrpa—Puyurru with other works of art. Simply These “water holes” provide both you have gathered about a work (Water Dreaming at Puyurru) physical and spiritual sustenance to ask yourself with each work: of art together to try to under- 2007 the region’s Warlpiri people. The long stand what it means. curving yellow lines in the painting What do I see? Acrylic on canvas Promised gift of Will Owen and Harvey represent the fast-flowing rivers that (Close Observation) There can be multiple interpreta- Wagner; EL.2011.60.45 form after a heavy rain. The lines that tions of a work of art. The best- cross between the curving lines suggest What do I think? informed ones are based on visual the lightning and rain-making clouds. (Analysis) Aboriginal Australian painting is often The fields of colored dots allude to the evidence and accurate research. inspired by a particular place, but it flowering of the desert after the rain, How can I learn more? also represents, through a sophisticated but the energy that they create on the Some interpretive questions to (Research) visual language, ancient stories about surface of the canvas also suggests the consider for this painting might the ancestors who visited and shaped continual spiritual presence of the include the following: What might it mean? that place, information about how to Ancestors. Overall, the painting cap- care for and maintain the wellbeing tures the transformative effect of water (Interpretation) What does this work tell us about of that particular region, and finally as it courses through the dry desert. the role of art in Aboriginal the powerful emotional, spiritual, and How do I feel about it? Australian culture? physical connection the artist and his For hundreds of years, Aboriginal (Critical Assessment and or her people feel for that location. peoples depicted Dreamings by paint- Response) How is it the same or different ing them in the sand or on rocks or from the role of art in American This painting depicts a site known as their bodies during ceremonies. Only This brochure was written by Vivian Ladd, Puyurru in the Tanami Desert. Located recently—beginning roughly forty years culture? Museum Educator, and Stephen W. Gilchrist, in the Northern Territory, the Tanami ago—did they begin painting Dream- Curator of Indigenous Australian Art. is the northernmost desert in Australia. ings on canvas. Similarly, Shorty Jangala The Hood Museum of Art thanks Judy and It is home to an extraordinarily rich Robertson has been painting for the Step 5: Critical Assessment Charles Hood, Class of 1951, for their biodiversity and was not fully explored art market only since the mid-1980s, and Response support of this brochure. by non-Indigenous people until well but he has been painting in ceremonial into the twentieth century. contexts for most of his adult life. As a This final stage involves a judg- © 2013 Trustees of Dartmouth College senior Warlpiri man, his iconography ment of the success of a work Art © 2013 Artists Rights Society (ARS), This painting also tells an ancient is derived from sacred ceremonies, and of art. Critical assessment deals New York / VISCOPY, Australia story, or Dreaming. In the religion of from designs that are incised or painted with questions of value and can aboriginal Australians, the Dreaming onto shields, wooden dishes, boomer- include more personal and subjec- refers to stories about the creation of angs, and bodies, as well as those creat- tive responses to art. the world by ancestral beings. Dream- ed for large three-dimensional ground ings explain how the universe was paintings. These sacred designs and the Do you think this painting is created, how the land was shaped, and stories they reveal are reserved only for successful and well done? Why or who and what came to live in it. They members of the community. Robertson why not? provide guidance on how to behave modifies these designs for the public and why, where to find certain foods, and re-presents them on canvas as a Do you like it? Does it move you? and much more. Above all, Dream- way to demonstrate cultural knowl- ings teach people to live in harmony edge, identity, and pride. The incentive with each other, animals, and the to paint comes from a desire to pay land. Aboriginal people themselves homage to the shape-shifting Ancestors more frequently refer to the Dreaming who first gave Walpiri people these in English as “the Law,” the unify- creation narratives and the designs ing principle that brings together and with which to illustrate them. This governs all people, places, and things. painting both honors the two ancestors The Dreaming is not a finite period of who originally sang down the rain and time but is believed to be continually celebrates this knowledge that is still occurring; it is everpresent in Aborigi- practiced today. nal Australian culture. hood museum of a r t This painting recalls the important narrative of two Ancestral men who d a r t m o u t h c o ll e g e “sang” or summoned down the rain.

number five in a series Let your eyes wander over the Step 2: Analysis surface. A Closer Look Now think about all of this visual information. What do you notice about the lines? The Hood Museum of Art is a teaching museum. Our mission is to Do the lines, shapes, and colors of this painting remind you of any- Their movement? Their color? create an ideal learning environment that fosters transformative thing? Perhaps elements in the natural world? encounters with works of art. One way we do this is through a method called Learning to Look. This five-step approach to exploring works What effect do the dots have on the eye? How would the painting be of art is designed to empower visitors to observe carefully and think different if the dots were blended into fields of color? critically about any work of art. What tools might the artist have used to paint this image? Simply follow the steps below to practice this technique. Does this painting have depth? Or does it feel like a flat surface? What do you notice about the shapes How does this painting make you feel? Do you think it suggests some- at the ends of the long wavy lines? Step 1: Close Observation thing concrete or something more poetic or spiritual?

Look carefully at this painting. As you consider each of these questions, look to the painting for visual evidence to support your ideas. What do you see?

Step 3: Research Now that you have had a chance to look carefully and begin forming your own ideas about this work of art, feel free to read the text printed on the back of this brochure. It provides contextual information you cannot get simply by looking at the painting. What do you notice about the dots that fill the spaces between the When you have finished reading, consider the following: shapes and lines? Their density in different parts of the painting? Does this information reinforce what you observed and deduced on Their movement? Their colors? your own?

Did it mention anything you did not see or think about previously? If so, what?

How would your experience of this painting have been different if you had read the background information before looking at it closely?

In this instance, the artist created a painting that not only describes a What do you notice about the background? Its color? The way the particular place (the Tanami Desert and the water courses above and background color interacts with the lines and dots on the surface of below ground) but also refers to an ancient story (the Ancestors singing the painting? down the rain in a great thunderstorm) and expresses his spiritual con- nection to the land and its importance to his culture.

Look again at the painting. What choices did the artist make in order to achieve all this? In what way does this painting suggest water? Rain? Riverbeds or underground waterholes?

In what way does this painting suggest a desert after rainfall?

What signs and symbols suggest the spiritual presence of the ancestors and what they caused to happen here?

What is it about the painting that suggests a love for this place or even a spiritual feeling toward it?