contemporary australian aboriginal art

@australianaboriginalart

Australian Aboriginal art is at once the most ancient and the very newest of artistic traditions, drawing on 40,000 years of unbroken cultural tradition that still conceives of Land, Spirit and Man as a connected and balanced whole. The spectacular flourishing of Australian Aboriginal painting after the mid-1970's is among the most important developments of twentieth century art. Using modern acrylic paints, a limited repertoire of symbols and a distinctive aerial perspective, Australia's indigenous artists create paintings of unique power, managing to be both organic and geometric at the same time. Aboriginal paintings are generally done outdoors, with the painting lying on the ground. The artists work their way around the canvas, applying paint from more than one direction, giving the paintings their distinctly non-western perspective. Their works are still based today on historical images and ideas; maps of waterholes and ancestral activities, the re-telling of Dreamings (the spiritual basis of Aboriginal culture) or ceremonial body painting designs. Each painting is a re-enactment of connection to country and every painting also contains its own song, as all things in this world were sung into existence by the ancestors. Before song there was nothing. The songs given to the people by the ancestors have always been used to used to remember and teach all of the intellectual, cultural and spiritual knowledge of the people and the paintings are the modern expression of this ancient and valuable knowledge. The aim of this blog is to showcase the deep variety and dynamism of this fantastic evolving art movement. Come back often and ENJOY! (We have another Tumblr called Indigenous Art of Australia) You may also visit www.ochredotgallery.com to learn more and see paintings available for purchase or rental.

29 posts

Ngarra: A Record of Life

Ngarra’s art, like his life, was a synthesis of informed action and contemplative celebration. When he died in November 2008 he anticipated that his work would project life affirming values that would inspire people to see the importance of, ‘Living properly and looking after the country.’

His conceptualisation and articulation of allegory was particular to his Kimberley worldview formed initially by his gatherer-hunter upbringing and by his first language, Andinyin.

In his last years, despite fading eyesight, Ngarra produced these astonishing, unique, delicate and evocative works on paper, an extraordinary record of life lived on the frontiers of a changing Kimberley over the course of nearly a century.

Alongside his earlier works on canvas in acrylic and ochre, this singular oeuvre places Ngarra in the front rank of artists to have emerged from the Kimberley, and one of Australia’s most important documenters of Indigenous knowledge.

Ngarra

Garngki and Manganda

61 x 61 cm

Acrylic on Linen

Ngarra

Yalyalji, Kuyu and Banari

50 x 70 cm

Acrylic on Paper

Ngarra

Untitled

60 x 60 cm

Acrylic on Linen

Ngarra

Ngamangray and Gularrt

50 x 70 cm

Acrylic on Paper

Ngarra

Mandewa

61 x 60 cm

acrylic on linen

Ngarra

Lunburru Wad Wanima

50 x 70 cm

Acrylic on Paper

Ngarra

Crosscut Saw and Badjerungu

61 x 61 cm

Acrylic on Linen

Whiskey Tjukangku Punu (Trees) 2011

Whiskey Tjukangku Punu (Trees) 2011

Whiskey Tjukangku Punu (Trees) 2011

Whiskey Tjukangku Punu (Trees) 2011

Plants are an important part of the indigenous spiritual traditions, many of which are associated with ancestral beings. There are special ceremonies for each of the major plant foods.

Trees (punu) such as the mulga and centralian bloodwood are used to make tools such as spearheads, boomerangs and bowls. The red sap of the bloodwood is used as a disinfectant and an inhalant for coughs and colds.

Others, such as the red rivergum and corkwood trees like grevillea and hakeas, are a source of food themselves. The white flaky crust from river redgum leaves can be rolled into balls and eaten like candy, while the nectar from the flowers of the corkwood trees produce a sweet drink.

Alec Mingelmanganu Wanjina 1980

Wandjina are the supreme spirit ancestors of the Indigenous people of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Their power is so great that they don't need to speak, so they have no mouth. Their eyes are powerful and black, like the eye of a cyclone. The lines around a Wandjina's head can mean lots of things – clouds, rain, lightning. The oval shape on the chest usually placed centrally beneath the shoulders is said to represent the Wanjina’s heart, or a pearl-shell pendant. The beliefs regarding the Wanjina as cloud and rain spirits spread to other groups across Australia and so the riji (pearl shell pendants) became associated with rain-creation ceremonies far and wide.

Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi untitled circa 1972

An earlier example of art motif with possibly similar meaning to the pearl shell designs. The artist was a Pintupi man from the Central Desert and was surely familiar with the shells that had been traded into his country.

Ronnie Tjampitjinpa Water Dreaming at Malparingya 2006

It is easy to see the translation of motif from pearl shell carvings to canvas. The artist is a Central Desert Pintupi man

Collection of Engraved Pearl Shells (Riji, or Jakoli) WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The word riji is from the Bardi language and are the pearl shells traditionally worn by Aboriginal men in the north-west part of Australia, around present-day Broome. Objects of great beauty and value, pearl shells were traditionally traded with inland Aboriginal groups. They have been found at Yuendumu in the Central Desert, South-Eastern Arnhem Land in northern Australia, Queensland and South Australia.

They were often incised with geometric patterns or figurative scenes highlighted with a mixture of red or yellow ochre and resin rubbed into the grooves. Decorated and plain pearl shells were used for rain-making and magical purposes, for trade, in ceremonies and as personal adornments such as necklaces or pubic covers when they were worn attached by belts or necklaces of hair string. Although in many areas pearl shell was used in male initiation ceremonies, men, women and children in the Kimberley also wore it on festive or formal occasions. Women also played a key role in moving shells along the extensive traditional trade routes that still exist in remote areas today.

Lorna Fencer Napurrula Kangaroo Tucker 2005

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