SPIRIT COUNTRY Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art

SPIRIT COUNTRY Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art

Jennifer Isaacs

Fine Arts Museums of First published in Australia in 1999 By Hardie Grant Books Level 3, 44 Caroline Street South Yarra Victoria 3141

First published in the United States of America in 1999 By the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Golden Gate Park, San Francisco California 94118

Copyright © Jennifer Isaacs, 1999 Copyright © “Our Painting Is a Political Act,” Hetti Perkins Copyright © in the illustrated artworks remains with the artists Copyright © in substantive content of the painting explanations remains with the artist or Aboriginal community arts organizations

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval sys- tem or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, record- ing or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data: Isaacs, Jennifer. Spirit country. ISBN 1 86498 049 4

1. Aborigines, Australian — Painting — Exhibitions. 2. Painting, Modern — 20th century — Australia — Exhibitions. 3. Paintings, Australian — Exhibitions. I. Title.

759.99407479461

Produced by Hardie Grant Books in association with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

Editing by Jenny Lee Proofreading by Elaine Miller Cover and text design by Michael Callaghan (Redback Graphix) Type styling by Gregory McLachlan Cartography by Guy Holt Photography on behalf of the Gantner Collection by Mark Ashkanasy Photography on behalf of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco by Joseph McDonald Landscape photographs by Richard Woldendorp Produced by Phoenix Offset Printed and bound in Hong Kong

This book is the product of a collaboration between Hardie Grant Books and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and therefore uses American style conventions. It is published on the occasion of the exhibition Spirit Country: Australian Aborigianl Art from the Gantner Myer Collection at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.

Plate 96 (detail) Gertie Huddlestone, b. c. 1930 Ngukurr Sunset, 1996 123 x 100 cm (48.5 x 39.5 in.) Acrylic on canvas

He has no need of a mouth, he sends his thoughts. Daisy Utemorrah

Painting is our Foundation. White man calls it art. Galarrwuy Yunupingu

The colours hold the Power of the Land. Micky Dorrng

We must stay close to the ground or maybe we will get lost. Narritjin Maymuru Paint’em up. Woman’s story. Strong one. Narputta Nangala

That’s my country. I paint ’im. I’m boss for that place. I might show you. M. N. Tjapaltjarri

That’s the story I’m telling you. Special. Sacred. Important. Wandjuk Marika

With painted breasts, the old women are dancing. They are holding their country and their granddaughters are following them. Gloria Petyarre

Contents

Our Painting Is a Political Act Hetti Perkins x The Gantner Myer Aboriginal Art Collection xv Spirit Country 1 Essay 3 The Desert 17 Map 18 Introduction 19 Plates 1-35 33 The Kimberley 109 Map 110 Introduction 111 Plates 36-52 119 Arnhem Land, Tiwi Islands, and Gulf Country 153 Map 154 Introduction 155 Plates 53-97 167 Notes xxx List of Plates xxx Further Reading xxx Glossary xxx Acknowledgments xxx Index xxx

Plate 16 (detail) Narputta Nangala, b. 1933 Two Women, 1997 152.5 x 109.5 cm (60 x 43 in.) Acrylic on canvas Our Painting Is a Political Act interpretations of the country to which they belong As Galarrwuy Yunupingu, leader of the Gumatj and the histories it contains. people and head of the Northern Land Council, has In Arnhem Land, the center at Maningrida is the written: collection point for artists from many small We are painting, as we have always done, to communities, including James Iyuna, whose demonstrate our continuing link with our paintings capture the often mischievous or country and the rights and responsibilities we formidable personalities of the spirit beings that have to it. We paint to show the rest of the dwell in the region’s lagoons and caves. world that we own this country and the land In the mid-1980s, when I began working in the owns us. Our painting is a political act. indigenous visual arts arena, most exhibitions at Aboriginal artists have been at the forefront of Aboriginal art galleries, including the one where political and social change for indigenous com- I worked in Sydney, were focused on communities munities. In the metropolitan centers of Australia, and emphasized the cultural, communal context of part of this struggle has been an ideological Aboriginal art practice. Now, the presence of the campaign to achieve recognition of the changing individual is increasingly being asserted through face of indig-enous identity. The emergence of a the visual arts, as artists express their identity in distinctive and strong indigenous voice through relation to ceremony and community, and great the visual arts over the preceding few decades has artists are acknowledged for their special gifts and been a catalyst for a re-evaluation of Australia’s power of visual communication. history and its potential Art and politics are often inextricably intertwined. to emerge into the twenty-first century as a nation x t the close of the twentieth century, Australia California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Ahas witnessed the renaissance of the world’s Francisco. oldest living art tradition. Indigenous artists have One of the most exciting developments in brought their culture to the international stage contemporary indigenous arts practice over the from the breadth of the Australian continent and past few decades is the consolidation of regional its sur-rounding islands. From the Torres Strait diversity. Several art centers have emerged in the Islands, birthplace of the historic Mabo decision of Western Desert since the beginnings of the art 1992 that recognized the native title of indigenous movement peoples, to the gold-fields of Kalgoorlie in Western out of Papunya in the early 1970s. Among them is Australia and the cities of the southeast, artists are Warlukurlangu Artists, serving the Warlpiri artists drawing on their heritage to express their of Yuendumu, which is well known for its elaborate contemporary reality. and vibrantly colored paintings, often executed Through their work, Aboriginal artists invite a communally by custodians of the particular more appreciative understanding of their world Jukurrpa (Dreaming story) being depicted. The and its diversity. Among the collectors who have unique land-forms of the Kimberley and responded are the Gantner and Myer families, surrounding regions frequently occur in the work whose outstanding representative collection of of northwestern Australian artists such as the late contemporary Aboriginal art from the communities Rover Thomas. Thomas and fellow artists such as in the Central Desert, the Kimberley, and Arnhem Queenie McKenzie and Freddie Timms have Land is being shown for the first time at the developed idiosyncratic yet distinctively Aboriginal

xi

The Gantner Myer Aboriginal Art Collection

pirit Country presents the Gantner Myer arrival in Australia of Sidney (Baevski) Myer, founder SAboriginal Art Collection, a group of paintings, of the Myer Emporium, and to celebrate the trans- sculptures and weavings designed to reveal the Pacific links between the Myer and Gantner best recent contemporary Aboriginal art practice in families. the main art centres on indigenous lands from the Baillieu Myer, ’s son, is known desert, the Kimberley and the tropical Top End. This throughout Australia for his patronage and love of art continues to express people’s essential the arts. A trustee of the Sidney Myer Fund for relationship with their Spirit Ancestors and the more than thirty years, he also founded the Myer land, and their spiritual belief concerning the Foundation with his brother, Kenneth. He and his Creation Era, the Tjukurrpa or Dreaming. The wife Sarah maintain the family’s long-standing collection not only includes artists who have tradition of broad philanthropy towards science, significant solo careers, but also encompasses social welfare, the arts and cultural programmes. collective community works expressing people’s is widely known for his continuous sense of history and spirituality relating pioneering work in Australian theatre as founder, to the land through art. Selected earlier works are director and actor with the Playbox Theatre also included as reference points for the sources of Company and founder of the Malthouse Arts contemporary Aboriginal art. Complex in . In recent years he has been The collection was formed over a four-year period increasingly involved in business and by Baillieu Myer and Carrillo Gantner with support philanthropic activities and is a vice president of from Neilma Gantner and guidance from the the . curator, Jennifer Isaacs. It was first shown at the Baillieu, his sister Neilma and Carrillo have joined California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San together in building this collection of Francisco in September 1999 to commemorate the contemporary Australian Aboriginal art to celebrate

Plate 6 (detail previous page) Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, b. 1943 Emu Dreaming at Tumpilpungkul, 1997 122 x 183 cm (48 x 72 in.) Acrylic on canvas

Plate 9 (detail, opposite) Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka, b. c. 1928 Ralyalnga, 1997 107 x 28 cm (42 x 11 in.) Acrylic on canvas

xv