John Mawurndjul

(born circa 1952)

Mardayin at Kakodbebuldi, 2000

Footnotes

PROVENANCE:
Maningrida Arts & Culture, Maningrida, Northern Territory
Purchased from Annandale Galleries, Sydney in September 1999
The Laverty Collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED:
Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival - Aboriginal bark paintings, sculptures and hollow logs from Maningrida and Yirrkala Arnhem Land, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 13 September - 14 October 2000
On loan to the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne from May 2001 - May 2006
Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 - 2002, curated by Jason Smith and Charles Green, Ian Potter Centre, National Gallery of Victoria: Australian Art at Federation Square, Melbourne, 28 October 2002 – 16 February 2003
rarrk - John Mawurndul : Journey Through Time in Northern Australia, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland, 21 September 2005 - 29 January 2006; Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany, 19 February - 5 June 2006


LITERATURE:
Lisa Prager, Margaret Trudgeon and Dianne Waite (eds.), Fieldwork: Australian Art 1968 – 2002, exh. cat., Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 2002, listed in catalogue p.149, not illustrated
Christian Kaufmann et al., rarrk - John Mawurndul: Journey Through Time in Northern Australia, exh. cat., Belair, South Australia: Crawford House Publishing Australia, 2005, p.134 (illus.), listed p.228
Colin Laverty and Elizabeth Laverty et al., Beyond Sacred:Recent Painting from Australia's Remote Aboriginal Communities- the collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Melbourne: Hardie Grant Books, 2008, p.42 (illus.)
Colin Laverty and Elizabeth Laverty et al., Beyond Sacred: Australian Aboriginal Art - the collection of Colin and Elizabeth Laverty, Edition II, Melbourne: Kleimeyer Industries, 2011, p.317 (illus.)

This work is a very fine example of how Mawurndjul
was experimenting and finding new ways to represent
Mardayin themes in the late 1990s. The energy of
the painting in conveyed by the circular motifs that
Mawurndjul interprets as lights glowing in the billabong
at Kakodbebuldi, located on his clan lands.

Apolline Kohen

JOHN MAWURNDJUL
In 2010, Mawurndjul became a Member of the
Order of Australia for 'his service to the preservation
of Indigenous culture as the foremost exponent of
the Rarrk visual art style'. John Mawurndjul's artistic
career spans over 30 years of intense and prolific work.
Widely acclaimed both nationally and internationally,
Mawurndjul is an innovator and has revolutionised
Kuninjku bark painting in both the treatment of rarrk
(crosshatching) and in the iconic representation of
Mardayin's themes. He was awarded the bark painting
prize at the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Art Award in 1999 and 2002 and, in 2003 the
prestigious Clemenger Contemporary Art Award. In 2005,
Mawurndjul opened the first retrospective of his work
at the Musée Jean Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland.
In 2006, he worked on a major commission for the
Musée du Quai Branly, Paris, France. In 2007, he
participated in the first Triennial of Indigenous Art
held at the National Gallery of Australia, which toured
internationally. In 2009, he received the Melbourne Art
Foundation Award for the Visual Arts. The paintings in
the Laverty's collection are exceptional examples of
Mawurndjul's representations of Mardayin's themes
and of his groundbreaking style that still influences
Kuninjku artists today.

Apolline Kohen