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Jack Wunuwun
Murrungun/Djinang people / Australia NT 1930–91
Barnumbirr Manikay (Morning Star Song Cycle)
1988
Natural pigments with synthetic polymer on canvas / 182.5 x 159cm /
© Jack Wunuwun/Licensed by Viscopy, 2017
Rover Joolama Thomas
Kukatja/Wankajunga people /
Australia WA c.1926–98
The Shade from the Hill Comes
Over and Talks in Language
1984
Earth pigments and natural binders
on canvas / 89.5 x 179cm / © Rover Joolama
Thomas/Licensed by Viscopy, 2017
Jack Wunuwun
Jack Wunuwun was a ceremonial leader of the Murrungun
clan and an innovative artist, who was willing to draw on
European influences. He lived and worked remotely at
Gamardi on the Blyth River to the east of Maningrida in
Arnhem Land.
This large painting on canvas contains all the elements
of the origins of the Murrungun clan world, while the
series of individual images on bark detail their manikay
(song cycle). Here, Wunuwn has painted his songs,
which speak of a creation time within the spiritual
realm. They have been ‘sung’ into the land by the
ancestors in order to convey the laws, sacred rituals
and codes of conduct, preserved and passed on by the
rightful custodians. The songs and dances are repeated
in performances of the Marradjirri rom (ceremony),
celebrating Barnumbirr (the morning star, or the planet
Venus) — the sequence of paintings follows the order
of the dance.
Rover Joolama Thomas
Paintings by Rover Joolama Thomas were early acquisitions
for the Janet Holmes à Court Collection. A seminal figure,
Thomas forged new conventions in Aboriginal art, particularly
in using minimal abstract markings to inscribe topographical
and mythological references onto broad fields of colour.
With this bold style, he attracted national and international
attention to Aboriginal art and created opportunities for the
east Kimberley school of artists.
Though Joolama Thomas lived and painted in Warmun,
he always held clear memories of his birthplace at Kunawarraji
on the infamous Canning Stock Route. His mastery of ‘finding’
songs and ceremonies through dreams gave Thomas the
cultural authority to paint from a landscape and law beyond his
mother’s or father’s, and incorporate contemporary narratives
into dance and song cycles. In 1975, he dreamt the famous Gurirr
Gurirr song cycle about the devastation caused by Cyclone Tracy
not long after it had all but flattened Darwin in 1974; during
performances, painted boards are held aloft by dancers.