The artists featured here are, quite literally, Australia's old masters and their work constitutes a peerless artistic canon. Many of them were also ritual leaders, statesmen and cultural advocates. Together, they carried one of the oldest traditions of art known to man – Aboriginal art – into a new era, to establish its place in the world.
Curly Bardkadubbu
Born clan, Kuninjku language, Duwa moiety. 1924–1987
Bardkadubbu rose to prominence as a painter in the late 1970s. He was tutored by Yirawala in the early 1970s when they shared outstations at Table Hill and Marrkolidjban, which both men had helped to establish. Later, he moved to Namokardabu, also in the Liverpool River region.
Bardkadubbu’s work was selected for a number of major exhibitions in Australia and abroad, including: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America from 1974 to 1976; and Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989. Bardkadubbu entered the first National Aboriginal Art Award, established by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in 1984.
Binyinyuwuy
Djarrankuykuy clan, Djambarrpuyŋu language, Dhuwa moiety. 1928–1982
Binyinyuwuy was a consummate, prolific and influential artist of high ritual authority, which gave him the rights to paint an array of subjects belonging to his moiety, the Dhuwa, and those of the Yirritja.
He was a driving force among the group of artists on Milingimbi during the 1960s, which included Tom Djäwa and David Malangi.
His work forms part of a number of celebrated collections, including those of the major state art museums, the Arnott’s Collection at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, museums in Paris and Basel, and the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia.
John Bulunbulun
Gurrumba Gurrumba clan, Ganalbiŋu language, Yirritja moiety. 1946–2010
Bulunbulun was a renowned healer and ceremonial singer as well as a major painter of his generation. He was one of the first Yolŋu artists to become a professional printmaker. In the 1970s he collaborated with his kinsman George Milpurrurru and the anthropologist Joseph Reser on a study of traditional Yolŋu housing.
In 1993 Bulunbulun led a group of Yolŋu performers to Ujung Pandang (Makassar) in Sulawesi to stage a ceremony, Marayarr Murrukundja, that re-established relations between the Ganalbiŋu and the Makasar. His work has been included in several seminal exhibitions of Aboriginal art, including Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94.
Dawidi
Galwanuk clan, Liyagalawumirr language, Dhuwa moiety. About 1921–1970
Dawidi inherited the role of ritual leader of the Liyagalawumirr when his father, Yilkari Kitani, died in 1956. Too inexperienced to assume full responsibility for the role at the time, he was aided by his uncle, Tom Djäwa, and was tutored in art by Dhawadanygulili (1900–1976) until about 1963.
Dawidi’s major subject is the Wägilak Sisters story, and the paintings in this exhibition reflect his artistic maturity. He featured prominently in the exhibition The Painters of the Wagilag Sisters Story 1937–97 at the National Gallery of Australia in 1997. He is represented in major public collections in Los Angeles, Paris and Basel, as well as within Australia.
Paddy Dhäthaŋu
Galwanuk clan, Liyagalawumirr language, Dhuwa moiety. About 1915–1993
Dhäthaŋu became a ceremonial leader of the Liyagalawumirr clan, with particular responsibility for ceremonies concerning the Wägilak Sisters, when his predecessor, Dawidi, died. As a boy he was taken to Milingimbi once the mission was established there, and he lived through the bombing of Darwin during the Second World War.
Dhäthaŋu was a major contributor to The Aboriginal Memorial (1988) at the National Gallery of Australia, and often collaborated with Dorothy Djukulul (born 1942), one of the first women painters in central Arnhem Land. In 1987 he painted a mural for the Darwin Performing Arts Centre and in 1992 was awarded an emeritus fellowship by the Australia Council for his contribution to the arts in Australia.
Bob Balirrbalirr Dirdi
Barrbinj clan, Kuninjku language, Yirridjdja moiety. About 1905–1977
The earliest recorded bark paintings by Balirrbalirr were collected by the anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt in the 1940s. His work was included in the Berndts’ influential exhibition The Art of Arnhem Land at the Western Australian Museum in 1957. This exhibition was the first to identify Aboriginal artists by name and clan.
Balirrbalirr was later represented in other major exhibitions, including: Australian Aboriginal Art, an Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition that toured the country in 1960–61; The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974–76; Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984; and Keepers of the Secrets at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1990.
Tom Djäwa
Daygurrgurr clan, Gupapuyŋu language, Yirritja moiety. 1905–1980
Djäwa was a senior ceremonial leader and artist who was acutely aware of the need to document Gupapuyŋu culture to ensure its continuity.
He recorded songs with the ethnomusicologist Alice Moyle and played a major role in two documentary films by Cecil Holmes: Faces in the Sun (1963) and Djalambu (1964).
From 1960 his work was included in a number of historically significant exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and he is represented in major collections in Paris and Basel, and in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia.
Djunmal
Mayarrmayarr clan, Liya’gawumirr language, Dhuwa moiety. About 1920–1975
Djunmal was a senior ritual leader of the Liya’gawumirr people and was known for always wearing sunglasses.
Along with Narritjin Maymuru and other Yolŋu, Djunmal participated in the acclaimed Aboriginal Theatre Foundation, which performed in Sydney and Melbourne in 1963.
Djunmal’s paintings are held in collections throughout Australia, in Paris and Basel, and in the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia.
Djunmal’s work was selected for the Scougall Collection exhibition, sponsored by Qantas, that travelled to Tokyo, Auckland, San Francisco, Montreal and Tehran in 1961–63.
Birrikitji Gumana
Dhalwaŋu clan, Yirritja moiety. About 1890–1982
Birrikitji was a ŋurrudawalaŋu – a renowned warrior – and a respected ritual and community leader.
His favourite painting subjects were the major Yirritja ancestors Barama and Lany’tjung. Birrikitji was one of the Yirritja painters of the Yirrkala Church Panels (1963).
Major exhibitions to feature his work include: Art of the Dreamtime, Tokyo, in 1966; Dreamings at the Asia Society Galleries, New York, in 1988; Spirit in Land at the National Gallery of Victoria, and Keepers of the Secrets at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, both in 1990; and Yirrkala Artists: Everywhen at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2009.
Gawirrin Gumana
Dhalwaŋu clan, Yirritja moiety. 1935–2016
Gawirrin, the eldest son of Birrikitji, was the oldest surviving painter of the Yirrkala Church Panels (1963).
In 2002 he won the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. The following year he received the Order of Australia for his services to Indigenous art and was selected for the Clemenger Contemporary Art Award. In 2009 he won the Red Ochre Award.
Among the many exhibitions to feature his work are: Art of the Dreamtime, Tokyo, in 1966; Dreamings in New York in 1988; Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989; Yirrkala Artists: Everywhen at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2009; and the Biennale of Sydney in 2010.
Mithinarri Gurruwiwi
Gälpu clan, Dhuwa moiety. About 1929–1976
Mithinarri was a prolific painter. He is noted for a style of painting that features repeated motifs organised in patterns that suggest the rhythms of ritual performance.
His favourite subject was the Wäwilak Sisters and Wititj the Python in Gälpu clan territory.
Mithinarri’s paintings appear in major public collections throughout Australia, in Paris and at the University of Virginia. They have also featured in several major exhibitions, including: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974–76; Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989; and Yirrkala Artists: Everywhen at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2009.
John Namerredje Guymala
Burdan clan, Kunwinjku language, Duwa moiety. 1926–about 1978
Namerredje was a superb draughtsman with a recognisably individual ‘hand’. The beautifully articulated patterns of rarrk that decorate his figures epitomise the Bininj notion of aesthetics in painting referred to as kabimbebme, literally ‘colour coming out’.
In 1973 Namerredje and his family moved to Yaymini outstation, far to the south of Maningrida, which they shared with Wally Mandarrk and his family. In the 1970s his work was collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board and by the American collector and professor of English literature, Ed Ruhe.
Namerredje’s paintings were selected for The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974–76; and Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984.
Harry Makarrwala
Wangurri clan, Yirritja moiety. About 1880–1950s
Makarrwala was a man of great authority and influence, regarded as the headman of central Arnhem Land. By the time he met the American anthropologist W Lloyd Warner in 1926, he could speak several languages including English and Malay (Makasar). Makarrwala became the research partner and friend of Warner, who conducted fieldwork at Milingimbi and recorded an insightful personal account of the artist’s life in his ethnography A Black Civilisation.
Makarrwala’s clan lands lie further to the east, around Arnhem Bay. His paintings were collected by CP Mountford during the 1948 expedition to Arnhem Land, and by the Australian collector and philanthropist Stuart Scougall in the 1950s.
David Malangi
Manharrŋu clan, Manyarrŋu language, Dhuwa moiety. 1927–1999
Malangi was one of the great artists of his generation. He was among the first Aboriginal artists to be selected for the Sydney Biennale, in 1979 – and for Australian Perspecta, in 1983, the year he also appeared in the XVII Biennale of São Paulo, Brazil. He participated in several major international exhibitions, including: Dreamings in New York in 1988; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; and Galerie des Cinq Continents in Paris in 1995.
Malangi was one of the driving forces behind The Aboriginal Memorial (1988) at the National Gallery of Australia. In 1996 he received an honorary doctorate from the Australian National University. The National Gallery mounted a major retrospective exhibition, No Ordinary Place: The Art of David Malangi, in 2004.
Wally Mandarrk
Barabba clan, Dangbon and Kune languages, Duwa moiety. About 1915–1987
Mandarrk was a fiercely independent traditionalist, who shunned the company of foreigners. He first met a European in 1946, while working at the sawmill at Maranboy. He was an acknowledged marrkdijbu or ‘clever man’, able to heal the sick and interact with spirit beings. Mandarrk lived in several bush camps until he established Yaymini outstation in the 1970s. His children recall the paintings he would make on their bark huts as teaching aids.
Mandarrk’s work was collected by the 1948 Arnhem Land expedition, and in the 1960s he worked with the anthropologist Eric Brandl, who documented his rock paintings. Mandarrk’s work has appeared in several major exhibitions, including Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94.
Mathaman Marika
Rirratjiŋu clan, Dhuwa moiety. About 1920–1970
Mathaman was a passionate advocate of Yolŋu traditions. He inherited the leadership of the Rirratjiŋu clan when his elder brother Mawalan passed away, and led the struggle against bauxite mining in the Yirrkala region.
Mathaman became a close friend of the collector JA Davidson, his agent in the 1960s. In 1996 a painting of Mathaman’s sold for a record price for a bark painting, at an auction in New York. His work has been included in many major exhibitions, including: Australian Aboriginal Art, an Art Gallery of New South Wales exhibition that toured the country in 1960–61; Yirrkala Artists: Everywhen at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 2009; and Yalangbara: Art of the Djang’kawu at the National Museum of Australia in 2010–11.
Mawalan Marika
Rirratjiŋu clan, Dhuwa moiety. About 1908–1967
Mawalan was a great visionary who advocated the need to teach all Australians about Yolŋu culture, especially through art. A senior Rirratjiŋu clan leader, he negotiated the establishment of the Methodist mission at Yirrkala in 1935.
Mawalan was the head of one of Australia’s great art dynasties that includes his brother Mathaman and son Wandjuk. He was a signatory to the Aboriginal Bark Petitions (1963) and the leading Dhuwa painter of the Yirrkala Church Panels (1963). In the 1960s Mawalan was the first artist to teach women (his daughters) to paint sacred clan designs. His work has been shown in many exhibitions, including: The Art of Arnhem Land, Perth, in 1957; Dreamings, New York, in 1988; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; and Yalangbara: Art of the Djang’kawu at the National Museum of Australia in 2010–11.
Wandjuk Marika
Rirratjiŋu clan, Dhuwa moiety. About 1930–1987
Wandjuk was one of the great Yolŋu ambassadors. The eldest son of Mawalan Marika, he was taught to paint as a teenager and became a prolific artist. Disillusioned after discovering an unauthorised reproduction of one of his designs on a tea towel in 1974, he ceased painting for eight years.
He became an advocate for Indigenous artists’ rights, a founding member of the Australia Council, and chair of the Aboriginal Arts Board from 1975 to 1980. In recognition of his services to the arts, Wandjuk was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1979, and the sculpture prize at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards is named in his honour.
Peter Marralwanga
Kardbam clan, Kuninjku language, Yirridjdja moiety. About 1917–1987
Marralwanga’s nickname was Djakku, the Kuninjku word for ‘left-handed’. From 1949 he lived mainly in Oenpelli (Gunbalanya), before moving to Maningrida a decade later. At first he made only spears and fishnets to sell, but by 1972 he had established an outstation at Marrkolidjban which, for a time, he shared with Yirawala, who taught him the skills of painting. Marralwanga developed a personal style characterised by bold bands of rarrk in alternating colours. He also tutored a young John Mawurndjul in bark painting.
Major group exhibitions featuring Marralwanga’s work include: Aboriginal Art at the Top, Darwin, in 1982; The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; and Crossing Country at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2004.
Yuwunyuwun Marruwarr
Marrirn clan, Kunwinjku language, Yirridjdja moiety. 1928–1978
Yuwunyuwun was among the group of painters at Oenpelli whose work was collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board in the 1970s. He possessed a distinctive style of painting that incorporated elegant passages of rarrk and an economy of form to convey the symbolic meanings of his subjects.
His work was selected for a number of major exhibitions, including: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974–76; Die Kunst der australischen Ureinwohner lebt at museums in Leipzig and Dresden, in the former East Germany, in 1981; and Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984.
John Mawurndjul
Kurulk clan, Kuninjku language, Duwa moiety. Born 1952
Mawurndjul is a renowned international artist with several art prizes to his credit, including the 2003 Clemenger Contemporary Art Award. In 2005 he joined a handful of Australian artists to have had a retrospective exhibition in Europe, at the Museum der Kulturen in Basel. Mawurndjul designed a ceiling piece for the Musée du quai Branly, Paris, which opened in 2006.
His work has featured in several major exhibitions, including: Magiciens de la Terre, Paris, in 1989; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; World of Dreamings at the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, in 2000; and the first National Indigenous Art Triennial, Culture Warriors, at the National Gallery of Australia in 2007.
Banapana Maymuru
Maŋgalili clan, Yirritja moiety. 1944–1982
Banapana was the son of the great Maŋgalili artist Narritjin Maymuru. Together, in 1978, they shared a creative arts fellowship at the Australian National University, the first of its kind to be offered to Aboriginal artists and which resulted in the exhibition Maŋgalili Art.
Banapana’s work was included in a number of major exhibitions, including: Aboriginal Australia, which toured Australia in 1981; Aboriginal Art at the Top, Darwin, in 1982; The Inspired Dream at Brisbane’s World Expo in 1988; and Yolngu, Aboriginal Cultures of North Australia in Brighton, England, in 1988.
Bokarra Maymuru
Maŋgalili clan, Yirritja moiety. About 1932–1981
Bokarra was the classificatory brother of Narritjin Maymuru and also a person of high ritual rank and authority. In 1963 he was among the Yolŋu group of performers in the Aboriginal Theatre Foundation, which performed in Sydney and Melbourne.
His paintings were collected by the anthropologist Helen Groger-Wurm in the mid-1960s and by American collector Ed Ruhe, whose collection now forms part of the Kluge-Ruhe Collection at the University of Virginia.
In 2009 Bokarra’s paintings in the collection of the Art Gallery of Western Australia were exhibited in Yirrkala Artists: Everywhen.
Narritjin Maymuru
Maŋgalili clan, Yirritja moiety. About 1914–1982
‘Artistfella’ is how Narritjin described himself. Not only an artist, he was also a performer, advocate, politician, clan head, ceremonial leader, philosopher and entrepreneur. Narritjin believed in the power of art to transcend cultures. In 1962, he was the instigator and one of the main painters of the Yirrkala Church Panels, and he painted the Aboriginal Bark Petitions in 1963. In 1978, he and his son Banapana were the first Aboriginal artists to be awarded a creative arts fellowship, at the Australian National University.
Before the establishment of an art centre at Yirrkala, Narritjin acted as agent to sell his own and other Maŋalili art at Djarrakpi. Narritjin’s work is in all the major public collections in Australia as well as in Paris and Basel, and at the University of Virginia. His exhibition history dates back to 1949, with Arnhem Land Art at the David Jones Art Gallery in Sydney.
His work has been selected for any major exhibitions, including: Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974–76; Dreamings, New York, in 1988; The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989; Crossroads: Towards a New Reality, Japan, in 1992; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; and Three Creative Fellows: Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Narritjin Maymuru at the Australian National University in 2007.
George Milpurrurru
Gurrumba Gurrumba clan, Ganalbiŋu language, Yirritja moiety. 1934–1998
In 1993, Milpurrurru was the first Aboriginal artist to be given a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia.
He was also among the first Aboriginal artists to be selected for the Biennale of Sydney, in 1979, and one of the major contributors to The Aboriginal Memorial (1988).
He participated in several major international exhibitions, including Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94. He had his first solo commercial exhibition in 1985 at the Aboriginal Artists Gallery in Sydney.
In 1986 he and a group of Ganalbiŋu performed a cleansing ceremony as part of the Sydney Biennale.
Valerie Munininy
Buyuyukululmirr clan, Liya’gawumirr language, Dhuwa moiety. Born 1958
Munininy was one of the original members of Bula’bula Arts, the art centre established at Ramingining in 1990. She is one of a large number of women painters who hail from central Arnhem Land. Her traditional lands are based at Gärriyak on Galiwin’ku (Elcho Island), a coastal site associated with the Djan’kawu ancestors.
She currently lives in Ramingining and works as community library officer for the East Arnhem Shire. Although she no longer paints, she is involved in cultural education and youth programs.
Mutitjpuy Munuŋgurr
Djapu clan, Dhuwa moiety. 1932–1993
Mutitjpuy is the first bark painter to win the National Aboriginal Art Award at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, in 1990.
He was known as a philosopher and had the authority to paint both Dhuwa and Yirritja subjects, and was the son of Woŋgu Munuŋgurr (about 1874–1958), the renowned Djapu leader and warrior.
At a young age Mutitjpuy moved to Yirrkala, where he was raised and tutored by Mawalan Marika.
He was also influenced by his father-in-law, Muŋgurrawuy Yunupiŋu, who introduced him to Yirritja law. Mutitjpuy’s paintings featured in Art of the Dreamtime at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1974, and The Inspired Dream at the World Expo, Brisbane, in 1988.
Dick Nguleingulei Murrumurru
Bularlhdja clan, Dangbon and Kunwinjku languages, Yirridjdja moiety. About 1920–1988
Nguleingulei occasionally worked in a timber camp or as a crocodile shooter, but preferred to live in his homelands on the Liverpool River plateau. He was a magnificent draughtsman with acute powers of observation, as seen in his finely detailed drawings of animals that suggest volume and three-dimensionality.
In 1982 one of Nguleingulei’s paintings was reproduced on the 75-cent Australian stamp. His work has been selected for several major exhibitions, including: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974–76; Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984; The Art of the First Australians, Kobe, Japan, in 1986; Dreamings, New York, in 1988; and Keepers of the Secrets at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1990.
Bardayal Nadjamerrek
Mok clan, Kundedjnjenghmi language, Duwa moiety. About 1926–2009
Bardayal was taught the art of rock painting by his father, Yanjorluk, in the 1940s. He worked in the mining and pastoral industries, and was also known by the nickname ‘Lofty’ due to his great height.
In the late 1960s, Bardayal turned his hand to creating public paintings. In 1999 he won the Work on Paper Award at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards. In 2004 he received the Order of Australia in recognition of his contribution to Australian culture through his art and rock art research. Bardayal was selected for the first National Indigenous Art Triennial, Culture Warriors, at the National Gallery of Australia in 2007. In the year after Bardayal passed away, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, honoured the artist with a major retrospective exhibition.
Najombolmi
Bardmardi clan, Jawoyn–Kundedjnjenghmi language, Yirridjdja moiety. About 1895–1967
Najombolmi was a renowned rock painter as well as a bark painter, and had a reputation as a great hunter and fisherman, hence his nickname Barramundi Charlie.
Najombolmi’s rock art can be seen in Kakadu National Park: his Lightning Man Namarrkon at Anbangbang near Nourlangie rock shelter, and his image of a hunter at the Djerlandjal site near Mount Brockman.
Najombolmi also restored older rock paintings, in keeping with tradition, to retain the power of the ancestors and spirits they depict.
His bark paintings were shown in Art of the Dreamtime, Tokyo, in 1966, and at the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1974.
Paddy Compass Namatbara
Alardju clan, Iwaidja language, Duwa moiety. 1890–1973
Namatbara was one of the group of artists on Minjilang (Croker Island) during the 1960s that included Yirawala, Jimmy Midjawmidjaw (1897–about 1985) and January Nangunyari Namiridali. Their work was collected by Dorothy Bennett, Karel Kupka, and Ronald and Catherine Berndt, who commissioned images of sorcery and magic. Paintings of this type had been banned by the missionaries, but they represent an important aspect of the art styles of western Arnhem Land.
Namatbara’s paintings are held in several major public collections in Australia, and in collections in Paris and Geneva, and at the University of Virginia.
January Nangunyari Namiridali
Djalama clan, Kunwinjku language, Yirridjdja moiety. About 1901–1972
Nangunyari Namiridali was one of the group of artists on Minjilang (Croker Island) during the 1960s that included Yirawala, Jimmy Midjawmidjaw (1897–about 1985) and Paddy Compass Namatbara. Their work was collected by Dorothy Bennett, Karel Kupka, Ronald and Catherine Berndt, and Louis A Allen.
Nangunyari Namiridali’s paintings are held in several major public collections in Australia, and in collections in Paris, Geneva, Basel and Los Angeles, and at the University of Virginia.
His paintings have featured in Art of the Dreamtime, Tokyo, in 1966; the Allen Collection at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 1974; and The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989.
Fred Didjbaralkka Narroldol
Djok clan, Kunwinjku language, Duwa moiety. About 1924–about 1980
Didjbaralkka was among the group of artists at Oenpelli (Gunbalanya) whose work was collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board in the 1970s and formed part of the exhibition Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984. His paintings were also collected by the American Louis A Allen, who exhibited his collection in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s.
Didjbaralkka’s paintings were shown in the exhibition Die Kunst der australischen Ureinwohner lebt at museums in Leipzig and Dresden, in the former East Germany, in 1981. A work by Didjbaralkka was included in Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94.
Bobby Barrdjaray Nganjmirra
Djalama clan, Kunwinjku language, Yirridjdja moiety. 1915–1992
Barrdjaray was the head of one of the great Australian art dynasties – the Nganjmirra family – that includes his younger brothers Jimmy Nakkurridjdjilmi and Peter (1927–1987), and their sons and grandchildren.
Barrdjaray was a prolific painter with a wide range of subjects available to him due to his high ritual status. He worked with the anthropologists Ronald and Catherine Berndt after the Second World War, and in the 1970s was a member of the Aboriginal Arts Board.
He featured in major group exhibitions, including Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984, and The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989.
Jimmy Nakkurridjdjilmi Nganjmirra
Djalama clan, Kunwinjku language, Yirridjdja moiety. About 1917–1982
Jimmy Nganjmirra was the younger brother of Bobby Barrdjaray and father of Robin (1951–1991) and Thompson (born 1954). He lived away from townships, preferring his traditional lands at Malworn and Kumarrderr.
Jimmy Nganjmirra commenced painting in the public arena in about 1960 and his work is held in several major public collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and the National Gallery of Australia.
He was represented in Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984; The Continuing Tradition at the National Gallery of Australia in 1989; and Keepers of the Secrets at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1990.
Jimmy Wululu
Daygurrgurr clan, Gupapuyŋu language, Yirritja moiety. 1936–2005
As a painter, Wululu was concerned with symmetry. He had worked as a builder and used a straight rule in his paintings.
Wululu was one of the major contributors to The Aboriginal Memorial (1988) at the National Gallery of Australia, and he participated in several major international exhibitions, including: Dreamings, New York, in 1988; Magiciens de la Terre, Paris, in 1989; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2, at the Biennale of Havana, Cuba, in 1994; Stories, from the Holmes à Court Collection at the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, in 1995; and Explained at the Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht, in 2004.
Jack Wunuwun
Gaŋarl clan, Murruŋun language, Dhuwa moiety. 1930–1991
Wunuwun was an innovative painter, unafraid to draw on influences from European art. He pioneered the rendering of three dimensions and perspective in bark painting. Wunuwun firmly believed that art was a powerful means by which to reconcile Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australia. In 1987 he was voted the Aboriginal Artist of the Year in the NAIDOC Awards.
His work was included in several major exhibitions including Artists of Arnhem Land at the Canberra School of Art in 1983; Magiciens de la Terre, Paris, in 1989; Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94; and Stories, from the Holmes à Court Collection, at the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, in 1995.
Yirawala
Born clan, Kuninjku language, Duwa moiety. About 1897–1976
Yirawala was man of high ritual status and authority. He sought to promote an appreciation of his Kuninjku culture among Europeans in order to protect Kuninjku heritage and land. He was a prolific and highly influential artist who used his ceremonial authority to introduce a number of innovations in western Arnhem Land bark painting. Chief among these was his ability to render countless variations on rarrk clan patterns to infuse his subjects with ancestral power.
Yirawala was raised in the Marrkolidjban region on the Liverpool River before moving his family to Minjilang (Croker Island), where he painted with Jimmy Midjawmidjaw (1897–about 1985), Paddy Compass Namatbara and January Nangunyari Namiridali. Here, in 1964, he met Sandra Le Brun Holmes, who was to become his patron.
Holmes organised his first solo exhibition in 1971, the year Yirawala won the International Co-operation Art Award and was appointed a Member of the British Empire for his services to Aboriginal art. In 1976 the National Gallery of Australia acquired 139 paintings by Yirawala through a program to represent Australia’s major artists in depth. Holmes made two films about Yirawala, one entitled The Picasso of Arnhem Land (1982).
Yirawala’s work has appeared in several international exhibitions, including: Dreamings at the Asia Society Galleries, New York, in 1988; and Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94.
Muŋgurrawuy Yunupiŋu
Gumatj clan, Yirritja moiety. About 1905–1979
Muŋgurrawuy was a senior Gumatj cultural leader, one of the Yirritja painters of the Yirrkala Church Panels (1963) and a signatory to the Aboriginal Bark Petition presented to the Australian Government in 1963. He belongs to a family dynasty that includes his sons – the politician Galarrwuy Yunupiŋu and the recently deceased leader of the rock band Yothu Yindi – and three artist daughters.
Muŋgurrawuy’s work featured in several international exhibitions, including: Australian Aboriginal Bark Paintings 1912–1964 in Liverpool, England, in 1965; Dreamings at the Asia Society Galleries, New York, in 1988; and Aratjara, which toured Europe in 1993–94.