S P I R I T C O U N T R YC o n t e m p o r a r y A u s t r a l i a n A b o r i g i n a l A r t

S P I R I T C O U N T R YC o n t e m p o r a r y A u s t r a l i a n A b o r i g i n a l A r t

Jennifer Isaacs

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

First published in Australia in 1999By Hardie Grant BooksLevel 3, 44 Caroline StreetSouth Yarra Victoria 3141

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

Copyright © Jennifer Isaacs, 1999Copyright © “Our Painting Is a Political Act,” Hetti PerkinsCopyright © in the illustrated artworks remains with the artistsCopyright © 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 LeeProofreading by Elaine MillerCover and text design by Michael Callaghan (Redback Graphix)Type styling by Gregory McLachlanCartography by Guy HoltPhotography on behalf of the Gantner Myer Collection by Mark AshkanasyPhotography on behalf of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco by Joseph McDonaldLandscape photographs by Richard WoldendorpProduced by Phoenix OffsetPrinted 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, 1996123 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 1Essay 3

The Desert 17Map 18Introduction 19Plates 1-35 33

The Kimberley 109Map 110Introduction 111Plates 36-52 119

Arnhem Land, Tiwi Islands, and Gulf Country 153Map 154Introduction 155Plates 53-97 167

Notes xxxList of Plates xxxFurther Reading xxxGlossary xxxAcknowledgments xxxIndex xxx

Plate 16 (detail)

Narputta Nangala, b. 1933Two Women, 1997152.5 x 109.5 cm (60 x 43 in.)Acrylic on canvas

interpretations of the country to which they belong and the histories it contains. In Arnhem Land, the center at Maningrida is the collection point for artists from many small communities, including James Iyuna, whose paintings capture the often mischievous or formidable personalities of the spirit beings that dwell in the region’s lagoons and caves.

In the mid-1980s, when I began working in the indigenous visual arts arena, most exhibitions at Aboriginal art galleries, including the one where I worked in Sydney, were focused on communities and emphasized the cultural, communal context of Aboriginal art practice. Now, the presence of the individual is increasingly being asserted through the visual arts, as artists express their identity in relation to ceremony and community, and great artists are acknowledged for their special gifts and power of visual communication.

Art and politics are often inextricably intertwined.

As Galarrwuy Yunupingu, leader of the Gumatj people and head of the Northern Land Council, has written:

We are painting, as we have always done, to demonstrate our continuing link with our country and the rights and responsibilities we have to it. We paint to show the rest of the world that we own this country and the land owns us. Our painting is a political act.

Aboriginal artists have been at the forefront of political and social change for indigenous com-munities. In the metropolitan centers of Australia, part of this struggle has been an ideological campaign to achieve recognition of the changing face of indig-enous identity. The emergence of a distinctive and strong indigenous voice through the visual arts over the preceding few decades has been a catalyst for a re-evaluation of Australia’s history and its potential to emerge into the twenty-first century as a nation

x

Our Painting Is a Political Act

At the close of the twentieth century, Australia has witnessed the renaissance of the world’s

oldest living art tradition. Indigenous artists have brought their culture to the international stage from the breadth of the Australian continent and its sur-rounding islands. From the Torres Strait Islands, birthplace of the historic Mabo decision of 1992 that recognized the native title of indigenous peoples, to the gold-fields of Kalgoorlie in Western Australia and the cities of the southeast, artists are drawing on their heritage to express their contemporary reality.

Through their work, Aboriginal artists invite a more appreciative understanding of their world and its diversity. Among the collectors who have responded are the Gantner and Myer families, whose outstanding representative collection of contemporary Aboriginal art from the communities in the Central Desert, the Kimberley, and Arnhem Land is being shown for the first time at the

California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco.

One of the most exciting developments in contemporary indigenous arts practice over the past few decades is the consolidation of regional diversity. Several art centers have emerged in the Western Desert since the beginnings of the art movement out of Papunya in the early 1970s. Among them is Warlukurlangu Artists, serving the Warlpiri artists of Yuendumu, which is well known for its elaborate and vibrantly colored paintings, often executed communally by custodians of the particular Jukurrpa (Dreaming story) being depicted. The unique land-forms of the Kimberley and surrounding regions frequently occur in the work of northwestern Australian artists such as the late Rover Thomas. Thomas and fellow artists such as Queenie McKenzie and Freddie Timms have developed idiosyncratic yet distinctively Aboriginal

xi

xv

Spirit Country presents the Gantner Myer Aboriginal Art Collection, a group of paintings,

sculptures and weavings designed to reveal the best recent contemporary Aboriginal art practice in the main art centres on indigenous lands from the desert, the Kimberley and the tropical Top End. This art continues to express people’s essential relationship with their Spirit Ancestors and the land, and their spiritual belief concerning the Creation Era, the Tjukurrpa or Dreaming. The collection not only includes artists who have significant solo careers, but also encompasses collective community works expressing people’s continuous sense of history and spirituality relating to the land through art. Selected earlier works are also included as reference points for the sources of contemporary Aboriginal art.

The collection was formed over a four-year period by Baillieu Myer and Carrillo Gantner with support from Neilma Gantner and guidance from the curator, Jennifer Isaacs. It was first shown at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco in September 1999 to commemorate the

arrival in Australia of Sidney (Baevski) Myer, founder of the Myer Emporium, and to celebrate the trans-Pacific links between the Myer and Gantner families.

Baillieu Myer, Sidney Myer’s son, is known throughout Australia for his patronage and love of the arts. A trustee of the Sidney Myer Fund for more than thirty years, he also founded the Myer Foundation with his brother, Kenneth. He and his wife Sarah maintain the family’s long-standing tradition of broad philanthropy towards science, social welfare, the arts and cultural programmes.

Carrillo Gantner is widely known for his pioneering work in Australian theatre as founder, director and actor with the Playbox Theatre Company and founder of the Malthouse Arts Complex in Melbourne. In recent years he has been increasingly involved in Myer family business and philanthropic activities and is a vice president of the Myer Foundation.

Baillieu, his sister Neilma and Carrillo have joined together in building this collection of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art to celebrate

The Gantner Myer Aboriginal Art Collection

Plate 6 (detail previous page)

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, b. 1943Emu Dreaming at Tumpilpungkul, 1997122 x 183 cm (48 x 72 in.)Acrylic on canvas

Plate 9 (detail, opposite)

Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka, b. c. 1928Ralyalnga, 1997107 x 28 cm (42 x 11 in.)Acrylic on canvas