Marcus Cameron, 93x48cm Bark Painting

In northern Australia, paintings on bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land were stylistically similar to rock shelter paintings.

$1,399.00 1,675+ Reviews

Réservation avec acompte

Retours sous 120 jours
Envoi assuré gratuit
Expédié de Tasmanie sous 1 jour, transit 5 à 10 jours
TVA réduite à l'import sur l'art original
Images aux couleurs fidèles

Maningrida Arts and Culture Certificate of Authenticity

Œuvre certifiée par la communauté

Cette œuvre originale est vendue au nom de Maningrida Arts and Culture, un centre d’art communautaire. Elle comprend un certificat d’authenticité.

Détails
Artwork
Artist
Art Centre

Détails

Aboriginal Artist - Marcus Cameron
Community - Maningrida
Homeland - Manmoyi
Aboriginal Art Centre - Maningrdia Arts
Catalogue number - 726-24
Materials - Earth pigments on fire-hardened stringybark
Size(cm) - H93 W48 D2 (irregular)
Orientation - As displayed
Postage variant - Delivered ready to hang with a metal mount on the reverse

Artwork

Aboriginal bark paintings have a long cultural tradition, believed to extend back many thousands of years. In northern Australia, paintings on bark shelters in the Kimberley and Arnhem Land were stylistically similar to rock shelter paintings. The Aboriginal bark paintings were used to convey and illustrate stories which were told to the clan when holed up in the shelter for long periods in the wet season. In the Kimberley, the Aboriginal bark paintings by Lily Karadada resemble ancient rock art Wandjina paintings which are themselves many, many thousands of years old. Bark paintings with deep cultural and ritual significance still feature in the Aboriginal sacred ceremonies of northern Australia, and Arnhem Land artists, along with some coastal inhabitants, are the only Aboriginal people still making traditional bark paintings. The process of making a bark painting begins with choosing a suitable stringybark eucalyptus tree, preferably in the wet season when the sap is rising and the bark is fairly supple and easy to grip. After finding a section of bark that is devoid of knots and termite damage, cuts are made top and bottom and after some encouragement by tugging and prying, a hollow open cylinder of bark is removed. The bark sheet is trimmed and a fire made ready, over which the bark will be cured to drive out any moisture. The bark is then flattened to the ground with feet and then held down with heavy weights to ensure that it doesn't curl or warp. The Aboriginal bark painters of Arnhem Land adhere to four basic pigments: red, black, white and yellow. The reds and yellows come from ochres, crushed and powdered rocks. White comes from pipeclay and black generally comes from charcoal. Sometimes natural fixatives are mixed in to bind the pigments, including wax, egg yolk, resins and the sap of orchid plants. The paint can then be applied to the bark, perhaps as a rarrk design, using a wood comb, or with brushes made from human hair or even feathers.

Artist

Details are currently unavailable

Art Centre

An art movement that is striking, political and enduring: this is what contemporary artists in Maningrida and the surrounding homelands have built, powered by their ancestral connections to country and djang.

Ways of learning and schools of art in Arnhem Land are based around a system of passing knowledge and information on to others. The art here has its genesis in body design, rock art and cultural practices, in concert with more than 50 years of collaborations, travel and political action to retain ownership of country. Values and law are expressed through language, imagery, manikay (song), bunggul (dance), doloppo bim (bark painting), sculptures, and kun-madj (weaving) – the arts.

The artists’ transformation of djang into contemporary artistic expression has intrigued people around the world: art curators and collectors, and stars including Yoko Ono, Jane Campion, David Attenborough and Elton John. Pablo Picasso said of Yirawala’s paintings, ‘This is what I’ve been trying to achieve all my life.’

Yirawala (c.1897–1976) was a legendary Kuninjku leader, artist, land-rights activist and teacher, and his artwork was the first of any Indigenous artist to be collected by the National Gallery of Australia as part of a policy to represent in depth the most significant figures in Australian art.

Maningrida Arts & Culture is based on Kunibídji country in Arnhem Land in Australia’s Northern Territory. The area where artists live encompasses 7,000 square kilometres of land and sea, and over 100 clan estates, where people speak more than 12 distinct languages. Aboriginal people in this region are still on country, surviving and resilient because their country is the centre of their epistemology, their belief system, culture – djang.

Artists’ works from the larger Maningrida region can be seen in collections and institutions around the world. We work with museums, contemporary galleries and high-end retailers both nationally and internationally on projects throughout the year.

Text courtesy: Maningrida Arts and Culture

Art d’Arnhem Land des homelands de Maningrida

Cette œuvre provient de Maningrida Arts & Culture, basé sur le pays Kunibídji en Arnhem Land. Les artistes vivent dans des homelands couvrant plus de 7 000 km² de terre et de mer et plus de 100 domaines claniques, où de nombreuses langues distinctes sont parlées et où les communautés continuent de vivre sur leur Country.

— Image : Freda Ali Wayartja récoltant le pandanus, Maningrida Arts & Culture

"Experience was smooth, quick and friendly. Perfect for mum." - Erin, Aus – ART ARK Customer Review