Gawirrin Gumana | National Museum of Australia

Dhalwaŋu clan, Yirritja moiety

Portrait of a man. - click to view larger image — Gawirrin Gumana

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.

Paintings in the exhibition

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a central male figure holding in each hand a pointed object decorated with feathered strings. On either side of him is another male figure. This section has a background of different coloured diamond shapes. At the foot of the painting are two crosshatched panels. The left contains a frog, a turtle and a barramundi. The one on the right contains a diver duck and a crayfish. - click to view larger image — *Barama Spreads the Sacred Law*

A bark painting worked with ochres on bark. It depicts a central log with roots among which are two black long necked turtles. There are two yellow long-necked turtles above these and two further long-necked turtles facing downwards in the central section. The painting is further divided into four horizontal panels with a background of diamond and striped patterns. - click to view larger image — *The Sacred Log*

Mithinarri Gurruwiwi

John Namerredje Guymala

Harry Makarrwala

David Malangi

Wally Mandarrk

Daily, free First Australians

Warlpiri Drawings

Aboriginal breastplates

Collection Explorer

Donations

All these bark paintings are part of the National Museum of Australia’s collection. © the artist or the artist’s estate, licensed by Aboriginal Artists Agency 2013, unless otherwise specified. These images must not be reproduced in any form without permission.

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