Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2017 Site Specific: The power of place

Nonggirrnga Marawili: Yathikpa

Cara Pinchbeck

8/9 February 2017

Lecture summary:

Nonggirrnga Marawili is currently one of Australia’s leading artists. She comes from an esteemed artistic family. Her father is the famed leader Mundukul Marawili, who completed crayon drawings for the anthropologist Ronald Berndt in 1947. Her husband is Djutjadjutja Mununggurr and for many years Marawili assisted him with the cross hatching on his refined bark paintings. Marawili began her career as a printmaker, but in recent years has further honed her skills in painting and dramatically altered her practice. Marawili paints alongside Nyapanyapa Yunupingu at the art centre in and together these ladies are forging a new identity for .

Like many artists working at Yirrkala today, Marawili is interested in the atmospheric effects created as country is brought to life through the movement of wind, water or unseen forces. She is not just documenting sites in country, as her predecessors did, but capturing the dynamism of a living landscape. Within bark painting traditions, the continual reduction of imagery in Marawili’s work, and indeed the restraint she shows in retaining bold areas of background painting, devoid of decoration, are courageous. While Marawili does not break with tradition, she certainly pushes at its boundaries.

This lecture will explore the evolution of Marawilli’s recent practice from her geometric paintings of the Djapu clan designs of Wanduwuy, through to her dramatic works of Yathikpa, which is of importance to the Madarrpa clan.

Slide list:

1. Djutadjuta Mununggurr, Mäṉa (The shark) c. 1984, natural pigments on bark, National Gallery of Victoria

2. Djambawa Marawili Mundukul 2015, natural pigments on bark, 242.0 x 103.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

3. , Djapu 2013, natural pigments on wood, 262cm x 15 x 17 cm / 279cm x 14.5 x 18 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

4. Marrnyula Mununggurr, Monuk 2013, natural pigments on wood, 279cm x 14.5 x 18 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

5. Rerrkirrwanga Munungurr, Gurtha 2012, natural earth pigments on bark , 56 x 26 cm, Private Collection

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6. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Fish trap at Wandawuy 2013, natural pigments on wood, 264.0 x 19.0 x 19.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

7. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Fish trap at Wandawuy 2013, natural pigments on wood, 208.0 x 13.0 x 13.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

8. Wonggu Mununggurr, Fishtrap at Wanduwuy 1947, crayon and pencil on butchers paper, 114 x 74 cm, Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia

9. Wonggu Mununggurr, Fishtrap at Wanduwuy 1947, crayon and pencil on butchers paper, 114 x 74 cm, Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia

10. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Waters at Wanduwuy 2012, natural pigments on bark, 245 x 90cm, Private Collection

11. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Djapu 2012, natural pigments on bark, 202 x 88cm, Private Collection

12. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Yathikpa Munggurru 2012, natural pigments on bark, 140 x 85cm, Private Collection

13. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Tea pots 2012, natural pigments on bark, 213 x 58cm, Private Collection

14. Mundukul Marawili, Madarrpa, Dhalwangu freshwaters meeting at the sea at Barraltja 1947 lumber crayon on butchers paper, 74 x 115 cm, Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia

15. Mundukul Marawili, Fish trap at Barraltja 1947, lumber crayon on butchers paper, 115 x 74 cm, Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia

16. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Baniyala story 2008, etching, 50 x 25 cm, Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia

17. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Yathikpa 2013, natural pigments on bark, 112.0 x 85.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

18. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Yathikpa 2013, natural pigments on bark, 138.5 x 91.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

19. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Lightning and Sea Spray 2014, natural pigments on bark, 243.0 x 70.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

20. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Lightning and the rock 2015, etching on paper, 40.0 x 40.0 cm, Art Gallery of New South Wales

21. Nonggirrnga Marawili, Baratjula 2014, natural pigments on board, 242.0 x 121.0 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales

For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/site-specific/