Artiste : Noŋgirrŋa Marawili

Titre de l'œuvre : Gurtha

Pigments naturels sur écorce

Format : 99 x 69 cm

Provenance et certificat original : centre d'art aborigène de Yirrkala

Référence de la peinture : 4318-18

© Photo : Aboriginal signature with the courtesy of the artist & Buku-Larrngay Mulka.

Explication de l’œuvre :

This Bark painting by Noŋgirrŋa Marawili (1938), depicts Their special spot on the mainland was Baratjula. A place to which she only returned after the creation of these paintings. Ṉoŋgirrŋa started life as one of the numerous children of Mundukul the Madarrpa warrior (c.1890-c.1950). He was a famed leader/warrior with uncountable wives of the Marrakulu, Dhudi Djapu and Galpu clans.

Baratjula is a Madarrpa clan estate adjacent to Cape Shield where the artist camped with her father and his many wives as a young girl. It is of the essence of Madarrpa but does not hold the high order sites that Yathikpa does. She lived nomadically as

part of a clan group with a flotilla of canoes between Groote Eyelandt and the mainland. This journey from the sacred to the descriptive shifts in these works. She has reduced the Law to its elements unclothed in sacred design. Her identity cannot be separated from her art and so although she disavows any sacred intent the echo of miny’tji persists.

Collections : Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW. Berndt Museum, University of Western Australia, Perth WA. Chartwell Collection, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand. Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. USA Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin NT. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney NSW. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra ACT. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC. The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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