John Mawurndjul (born 1951) is a highly regarded Australian contemporary Indigenous artist. He uses traditional motifs in innovative ways to express spiritual and cultural values, He is especially known for his distinctive and innovative creations based on the traditional cross-hatching style of bark painting technique known as rarrk.
Mawurndjul was born on 31 December 1951 in Mumeka, a traditional camping ground for members of the Kurulk clan, on the Mann River, about 50 kilometres (31mi) south of Maningrida.[1] He is a member of the Kuninjku people of West Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, and grew up with only occasional contact with non-indigenous people and culture.[2] Born in the bush south of Maningrida, Mawurndjul has based his life on Kurulk clan lands that stretch between the Liverpool, Mann and Tomkinson Rivers. This tract of sparsely populated tropical woodland is some 500 kilometres east of Darwin and accessible by dirt road only during the dry season. Steeped in ancestral narratives and abundant in plant and animal life, the area features ancient rock art galleries that skirt the northern rim of the Arnhem Plateau.[3]As of May 2010[update] he was living a traditional lifestyle at an outstation near Maningrida, still painting and hunting.[2]
Mawurndjul was introduced to ritual painting in 1969 by his father Anchor Kulunba (c. 1920 – 1996) who taught him crosshatching and rarrk techniques associated with the Mardayin ceremony to honour the region’s ancestral beings. In ensuing years under the instruction of his older brother Jimmy Njiminjuma (1947 – 2004), he became a proficient bark painter developing expertise unique to this form of practice: the harvesting and preparation of the stringybark support, cartographic knowledge of sacred ochre deposits and skills to grind, mix and fix their coloured pigments, and the fashioning of sedge rushes into delicate single-strand brushes.[4] Under Njiminjuma’s watch, Mawurndjul was also introduced to long-established Kuninjku conventions dictating subject matter and its iconography, the characteristics of which have been explored at length by anthropologist Luke Taylor in his pioneering analysis of Western Arnhem Land art.[3]
Growing up during the late 20th century, Mawurndjul experienced an era when the government of Australia was beginning to have a greater reach into Arnhem Land; a phenomenon that influenced his art throughout his career. Throughout his life, ration depots became commercialized villages and towns in the region that fundamentally changed the lives of indigenous people. Through his work, Mawurndjul addresses the complex colonial relationships that spawned from this development.[5]
Art
Throughout his career Mawurndjul has focused on the rarrk form as a key element in his work. As a young man Mawurndjul produced hair-thin lines of crosshatching in his more figurative works. These grid structures and the occasional exposures of the under layers of paint create a bir'yin' ("brilliance," "shining," "shimmering") effect, a quality of reminiscent of wangarr marr, or ancestral power.[6] Later he produced paintings of Ngalyod that showed its body with dazzling zigzags of colour. Some early works show detailed compositions with Ngalyod encircling other Djang and pulling them into the ground.[7] While these paintings have a light-emitting effect, the designs are not as powerful as those of ceremonial paintings, and the power coming from rarrk bark paintings is a "manifestation" of ancestral powers.[8] Mawurndjul's later work also includes circle shapes on top of the rarrk pattern, creating an visual effect that seems to make these circles "float" or even form figures with the grid that encapsulate more complex meanings.[6] In his Madayin series, these circles are seen to be reminiscent of waterholes, which also contain ancestral powers.[6] In Mawurndjul's words:
"Mardayin phenomena are located in water,
underneath bodies of water. Water is on the top and
Mardayin is underneath… it is always in the water."[6]
He was tutored in rarrk, a traditional painting technique using fine cross-hatching and infill,[9] in the 1970s by his uncle Peter Marralwanga[10] and elder brother Jimmy Njiminjuma[1] and began producing small paintings on bark. Some even considered him an "artistic prodigy" at the time.[11] In 1979, Mawurndjul began painting for the market, in which much of his works were small bark paintings that depicted animals and spirits, including bambirl (echidna), ngaldadmurrng (saratoga fish), birlmu (large barramundi fish), mimih spirits, yawkyawk and Ngalyod (the Rainbow Serpent).[12] Two examples of these early works are Ngaldadmurrng saratoga (1979) and Ngalyod, the Rainbow Serpent at Dilebang (c.1979).[12] During the 1980s he began producing larger and more complex works, and in 1988 won a Rothmans Foundation Award.[13] 1988 also marked the year in which Mawurndjul's worked gained heavy momentum being displayed in many exhibitions in Australia and overseas.[14] Some of his inspiration draws from Yirawala, Midjawmidjaw, Paddy Compass, and other artists.[15] Mawurndjul also takes strong inspiration from various sacred places. Mawurndjul before he starts new works will look across the Kurulk clan estate for inspiration.[16]
Over Mawurndjul's career he has employed many different techniques, some from his culture and others he has created himself. In the beginning of his career Mawurndjul stuck to his roots through creating many images of important figures in Aboriginal art such as the rainbow serpent Ngalyod. In later years he has emphasized a "geometric aesthetic",[17] using Mardayin ceremony body paintings in his works and making them his own.[17] For instance, in Madayin Ceremony (2000), Mawurndjul uses trianglular shapes hidden in a rectangular grid near the top of the work, similar to a body painting from the Kakodbebuldi region.[18] In fact, because the contemporary art world has started to consider his work as such, Mawurndjul clarified that this geometric experimentation was not in attempts to stray from traditional Madayin ceremonies, but to avoid using designs that would uncover their sacred and secret meanings in his works that are produced for the market.[15] Using the term "contemporary" when it comes to both Aboriginal and Mawurndjul's work or focusing on its inspiration, the artist's individualism, innovation, or surface-level features of the works takes the art away from its ancestral roots.[15] Another important thing to note about his work is that "he is a history painter, not a landscape painter."[19]
While painting on bark has been Mawurndjul’s primary medium, the artist has also produced many figurative carvings and lorrkon (hollow log coffins), bringing them to life with his finely painted imagery, and he has forayed briefly into printmaking.[3] All the materials for his art production, bark, ochres, and brushes can be sourced on his country as they are for ceremony.[20]
Throughout the 90s, Mawurundjul's work was included in major exhibitions displaying Aboriginal Australian art, most notably, Dreamings in New York (1988), Crossroads in Japan (1992), Aratjara: Art of the first Australians in Germany and the UK (1993–1994), and In the heart of Arnhem Land in France (2001).[1] Additionally, in 1995 Mawurndjul began to diversify his practices, and he began to aid in both rock art tourism and environmental management.[14]
Mardayin ceremony by John Mawurndjul, 2000.
In 2000, Mawurndjul's work was amongst that of eight individual and collaborative groups of Indigenous Australian artists shown in the prestigious Nicholas Hall at the Hermitage Museum in Russia. The exhibition received a positive reception from Russian critics, one of whom wrote: "This is an exhibition of contemporary art, not in the sense that it was done recently, but in that it is cased in the mentality, technology and philosophy of radical art of the most recent times. No one, other than the Aborigines of Australia, has succeeded in exhibiting such art at the Hermitage.[13]
In 2004, twenty-two of Mawurndjul's works were curated by Hetti Perkins in Crossing Country at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia in attempts to detach common perception of market engagements with contemporary Aboriginal art, as well the use of bark as a medium.[21]Crossing Country looked at the history of western Arnhem Land's artists and how they communicated and inspired each other.[21]
In 2006, the Musée du Quai Branly Jacques Chirac (MQBJC) in Paris commissioned a work form Mawurndjul as part of the Australian Indigenous Art Commission of the MQBJC.[21] Mawurndjul's Mardayin at Milmilngkan (2006) ceiling mural inhabits the MQBJC's gift shop, however, the museum fails to properly attribute the work to him, a testament to the modern world's struggle to recognise indigenous art.[21] After completing this work, Mawurndjul was recognised by french president, Jacques Chirac, as the 'maestro' at the museum's inauguration. He was also famously photographed in front of the Eiffel Tower in Time magazine.[5]
His work was subsequently the subject of a major retrospective in Basel, Switzerland (2005) and in the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany (2006). In 2018–2019 an exhibition of his work was shown in the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia and afterwards as part of Tarnanthi 2018 at the Art Gallery of South Australia. The John Mawurndjul exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art showcases a collection of bark paintings from one of the leading custodians of the land in Australia. The exhibition highlights Mawurndjul's spiritual heritage, which is reflected in his art, and the paradox of bark painting as both an ancient and new form of artistic expression.[22] The exhibition is arranged according to the moiety, the two ritual groups that divide a people, and the artist's request to not hang works in chronological order reflects the Indigenous sense of time. The exhibition showcases Mawurndjul's large-scale bark paintings, which he began making in the late 1980s after a dream and inspired by visits to art museums.[22] This exhibition showcased places of special cultural significance called kunred, along with the sacred places, spirits, and various animals that are integral to his artwork, has been developed under the leadership of the artist himself, and is described in both Kuninjku and English.[23] This was the first major exhibition of his work in Australia.[24] This made Mawurndjul the first Australian artist to have recceived a retrospective at two foremost museums in Europe.[11]
Legacy
Mawurndjul continues to live at Milmilngkan, his ancestral lands, where he participates in ceremonies and uses materials sourced from his country for both art and sustenance. Mawurndjul's art has been featured in numerous exhibitions across Australia, Europe, and the world, including the retrospective "rarrk" John Mawurndjul: Journey through Time in Northern Australia at the Tinguely Museum in Basel in 2005 and the major retrospective John Mawurndjul: I Am the Old and the New, organised by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney in 2018.[23][7] John Mawurndjul: I Am the Old and the New combines various works of art from both national and international collections from the past 40 years. As the lead of this exhibition, Mawurndjul describes and organizes the pieces by kunred which are special areas of cultural significance in his opinion.[25][26] Additionally, this exhibition is noted to be the first time the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney has held an entirely bilingual exhibition.[27] Mawurndjul's interactions with France were facilitated by Apolline Kohen, the French-speaking arts adviser at Maningrida Arts and Culture, who was able to lobby on his behalf for his commission mural to be included in the bookshop of the MQBJC.[20] Mawurndjul's broader reputation as a contemporary artist may be recovered from the vast wealth of materials, and his works may be considered contemporary in the sense that he works within a local Kuninjku history of art, maintains an awareness of the techniques used by a succession of other bark painters, yet brings his own new ideas and skills to this creativity.[20]
Mawurndjul is recognised as a contemporary artist in Australian, French, and global art circles. His reputation was built on his engagement with new projects, enthusiastic cultural expansiveness with researchers and curators, and his energy at painting.[20]
Mawurndjul has been a major influence on contemporary Kuninjku artists, and he has tutored his wife, Kay Lindjuwanga and daughter Anna Wurrkidj, who are now accomplished painters. He has created a whole school of artists and led an Australian art movement.[1] Mawurndjul also stores away Mardayin sacred objects painted with the ‘inside,' or secret, designs, which, should other artists wish to paint similar designs, they must come to him for his approval.[8] His influence can also be seen through his many awards he was won throughout his career.
Recognition and awards
In 1988, Mawurndjul was awarded the Rothmans Foundation Award for best painting in traditional media as well as first prize in the Barunga Festival Art exhibition.
In 1999, 2002, and 2016 Mawurndjul was awarded the bark painting prize at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.[28]
2003 also saw Mawurndjul named by Australian Art Collector magazine as one of the country's 50 most collectible artists.[30] His works have been singled out for praise by many critics, including Art Gallery of New South Wales senior curator Hetti Perkins, and artist Danie Mellor.[9]
The Australia Council for the Arts is the arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. Since 1993, it has awarded a Red Ochre Award. It is presented to an outstanding Indigenous Australian (Aboriginal Australian or Torres Strait Islander) artist for lifetime achievement.
Bark painting is an Australian Aboriginal art form, involving painting on the interior of a strip of tree bark. This is a continuing form of artistic expression in Arnhem Land and other regions in the Top End of Australia, including parts of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. Traditionally, bark paintings were produced for instructional and ceremonial purposes and were transient objects. Today, they are keenly sought after by collectors and public arts institutions.
Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded as beginning in 1971 with a painting movement that started at Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, involving Aboriginal artists such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, and facilitated by white Australian teacher and art worker Geoffrey Bardon. The movement spawned widespread interest across rural and remote Aboriginal Australia in creating art, while contemporary Indigenous art of a different nature also emerged in urban centres; together they have become central to Australian art. Indigenous art centres have fostered the emergence of the contemporary art movement, and as of 2010 were estimated to represent over 5000 artists, mostly in Australia's north and west.
Yirawala was an Aboriginal Australian leader, labourer and bark painter, most known for his artistic works. He was born in the Northern Territory, which at the time was responsibility of the state of South Australia, and died in Minjilang, otherwise known as Croker Island. He was extremely influential in promoting the acceptance of Aboriginal works as fine art, instead of "ethnographic material."[14] He was intensely concerned with the preservation of his culture, and he played an important role as an educator and mentor for young Aboriginal artists. His works can now be found in galleries across the world, and his influence lives on through the artists he inspired and the innovations he introduced to the artistic community. When Harold Thomas, the creator of the Aboriginal Flag was asked “Who do you think were our greatest artists?”, he responded: "I would have no hesitation to say Yirawala and Mandarkk. If I were to compare the two with any others I would say Yirawala is our Picasso, Mandarkk our Braque."
Narritjin Maymuru was a Yolngu people artist and activist noted for Bark painting. He began painting in the 1940s after time as a cook. After decades of work in 1979 he, and his son, became visiting artists at the Australian National University. His daughter Galuma Maymuru has become recognised as a significant Australian artist.
Bardayal "Lofty" Nadjamerrek was a Kunwinjku Aboriginal artist of the Mok clan. He belonged to the Duwa moiety and spoke the Kundedjnjenghmi language. He is currently referred to by his skin and clan as "Wamud Namok", following the Kunwinjku custom of avoiding use of the name of deceased persons.
Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra was a Kunwinjku Aboriginal artist of the Djalama clan and Yirridjdja moiety.
Nyapanyapa Yunupingu was an Australian Yolngu painter and printmaker who lived and worked in the community at Yirrkala, Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. Yunupingu created works of art that drastically diverge from the customs of the Yolngu people and made waves within the art world as a result. Due to this departure from tradition within her oeuvre, Yunupingu's work had varying receptions from within her community and the broader art world.
Gabriel Maralngurra is a artist from the Ngalangbali clan Kunwinjku artist in West Arnhem Land. As an aboriginal artist, he is well-known and respected within his community for the wide range of responsibilities he takes on. His artwork is displayed in various collections including the Australia Museum, Museum Victoria, and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.
Wanurr Bob Namundja (c.1933–2005) was an Aboriginal Australian artist known for his bark paintings.
Owen Yalandja is Aboriginal Australian carver, painter and singer of the Kuninjku people from western Arnhem Land, Australia. A senior member of the Dangkorlo clan, who are the Indigenous custodians of an important site related to female water spirits known as yawkyawk, Yalandja has become internationally renowned for his painted carvings of these spirits, as well as his paintings on eucalyptus bark.
Kay Lindjuwanga is an Aboriginal Australian artist from Maningrida in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is known for her bark paintings which often make use of Aboriginal rrark designs.
Crusoe Kuningbal or Guningbal (1922–1984) was an Aboriginal Australian artist from Maningrida in the Northern Territory, known for a pointillist technique and tall, slim sculptures of mimih spirits. In addition to his art, Kuningbal was a prominent cultural figure in his region, as he sang and performed in important ceremonies, most notably that of the Mamurrng.
Crusoe Kurddal was an Aboriginal Australian artist known for his Mimih and Yawkyawk sculptures, and acting roles.
Thompson Yulidjirri (1930-2009) was an Aboriginal Australian artist of the Kunwinjku people of western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Yulidjirri was renowned for his wide knowledge of ancestral creation narratives and ceremony, his painting skills and mentorship of young artists at the Injalak Arts and Crafts centre.
Mawalan Marika (c.1908–1967), often referred to as Mawalan 1 Marika to distinguish from Mawalan 2 Marika, was an Aboriginal Australian artist and the leader of the Rirratjingu clan of the Yolngu people of north-east Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. He is known for his bark paintings, carvings and political activism.
Peter Marralwanga (1916–1987), also known as Djakku, was an Aboriginal Australian artist known for his paintings. He was a member of the Kardbam clan of the Bininj people, and spoke the Kuninjku language. In addition to being a ceremonial leader, Marralwanga also helped found the Marrkolidjban outstation near Maningrida in 1972, with the help of artists Yirawala, Mick Mandayngu and Curly Barrkadubu. For most of his life, Marralwanga lived at the remote outstation, but briefly lived at the government settlement at Maningrida.
Mick Kubarkku (c.1922-2008) was regarded as a prominent Aboriginal Australian artist most associated with Kuninjku modernism.
Anniebell Marrngamarrnga is an Aboriginal Australian artist from Maningrida in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is well known for her large-scale, intricate fibre sculptures.
A memorial pole, also known as hollow log coffin, burial pole, lorrkkon, ḻarrakitj, or ḏupun, is a hollow tree trunk decorated with elaborate designs, made by the Yolngu and Bininj peoples of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. Originally used to hold the bones of deceased people or for burial ceremonies, they are now made as works of art. The permanent exhibit at the National Gallery of Australia, Aboriginal Memorial, consists of 200 hollow log coffins, created by 43 artists.
Gawirrin Gumana (1935–2016) was an important cultural leader of the Yolngu people and an Aboriginal Australian bark painter known for his use of rarrk.
1 2 3 Salmon, Fiona. "Kamak!: The mercurial art of John Mawurndjul". Art Monthly Australasia (312): 56–63.
↑ Altman, Jon (2006). "Mumeka to Milmilngkan: Innovation in Kurulk Art". Australian National University, Canberra: 11.
1 2 Mawurndjul, John (2018). I am the old and the new (1sted.). Sydney, Australia: Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Australia (published 23 September 2018). p.21. ISBN978-1-921034-97-8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
1 2 3 McGrath, Ann, et al. “6. Categories of ‘Old’ and ‘New’ in Western Arnhem Land Bark Painting.” Long History, Deep Time: Deepening Histories of Place, ANU Press, Acton, A.C.T., 2015, pp. 101–118.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
