Outback: Australian Aboriginal Masterpieces: Group Exhibition

The painting of Australia’s native Aboriginal’s has long been of interest to art historians, anthropologists and art collectors.  While many aboriginal works are somewhat formulaic with designs and motifs being passed down from one generation to the next, from 13 January, Gow Langsford Gallery – Auckland will exhibit major works by three of the best – Dorothy Napangardi, Minnie Pwerle and the late Rover Thomas.

Dorothy Napangardi has risen to prominence in the past few years as one of the most exciting contemporary Aboriginal artists working in Australia today - her widely acclaimed recent solo exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney confirming this.  Her work is characterised by the dot technique and with its simplicity of line and limited tonal variations, is resolutely contemporary.  “I really like painting.  I really love doing dot paintings.  While I’m doing my paintings I always have my family in mind, I have my country in mind.” (Dorothy Napangardi, Dancing Up Country – the art of Dorothy Napangardi, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2003, p.11)

Minnie Pwerle’s work, by comparison, is full of colour and created primarily through a series of brushstrokes.  Her main Dreamings are Awelye-Atnwengerrp, Bush Medicine and Bush Melon Seed, all of which convey her connection with her country and the food it provides the people. Pwerle began painting late in life at around the age of 89.  In 2000 she had her first solo exhibition in Melbourne. Since then, she has exhibited regularly throughout Australia. Her rhythmic, linear works representing her country of Atnwengerrp immediately captured the attention of collectors, both nationally and internationally.

Cyclone Tracey by Rover Thomas (c. 1926 – 1998) is relatively spare and unlike Napangardi and Pwerle who use acrylic paint, is executed in traditional earth pigments creating a rich textured surface.   As the title suggests, Thomas has depicted the fury of Cyclone Tracey that ripped through Darwin and the Kimberly region where Thomas lived in 1974.  Here the image of the cyclone has been pared down to the essential storm elements - wind, rain, darkness and lightning.  Thomas created for himself a unique style by reducing his compositions and introducing a "symbolic idiom in which the country appears flattened out and devoid of detail." (Christopher Heathcote, "An Embattled Medium", Australian Painting 1788 - 2000, Oxford University Press, Bernard Smith, 2001, p. 564)

All three artists have transcended the boundaries of traditional Aboriginal painting to create their own unique and contemporary styles that are now celebrated by critics and collectors alike.