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| by Taylor Cooper, #17-460 - acrylic on belgian linen
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Many original cultures in the world have always shown their interest in preserve the wisdom of ancient traditional activities. Senior men play the role of the memory of accumulative experiences about life and artistic manifestations of their villages. The knowledge and techniques pass to young artist learners with the hope they are able to preserve the practices, and in the best of the times, with the hope they can add new elements that improve their perspectives and their aesthetical values.
From fanatic, art lover point of view, it is common to underestimate the work done by native people on fragile living conditions, either by discriminative activities or by the lack of professional education that give them the “authority” to build aesthetic objects. So, we used to refer these objects as crafts and not art, in consequence we considered them as nice souvenirs at no expensive prices. But, if someone shows you a Mark Rothko’s famous “emotional abstract paintings” that was probably made in a fancy well established studio in New York, then, we feel with the necessity to pay millions of dollars for the incredible image with only two or three colored rectangles. That’s the force of mainstream academic art assessment.
As part of its role as exhibitor of artworks and artefacts that help to increase recognition in the value of historical and contemporary aboriginal art from around Australia,
Aboriginal & Pacific Art Gallery at Sydney has prepared “Four senior Man: One Strong Story”, a selection of abstract paintings made by senior artists of the communities. This way the spectator could appreciate the simplicity of the earthy colors linked to natural and cellular geometries. The kind of shapes that in other context the reviewers will determined as a result of a high aesthetical academic language from the artist.
The acrylics by Peter Mungkuri presents depictions of the veins of the natural world, the trees are showed as a nervous system that connects external air with the mother earth. In their roots her nutritious message flows at symbiotic rythms. Alec Baker depicts landscapes, forgotten any tridimensional aspect, the roads, the fields and the villages take its places on the canvas to be hieroglyphic maps tracing memories for the future. Taylor Cooper paintings are more about equilibrium, the shapes move, grow and stand into the image without lose the candid light of the orange hue. But Witjiti George is darker, we could lose any optimism from the last pictures, now, the compositions are tentacle ghosts, dark depictions of the ancient gods.
The exhibition will be open until March 31, 2018.
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| by Peter Mungkuri, #46-18 - Acrylic and ink on linen
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| by Peter Mungkuri, #45-18, acrylic and ink on linen
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| by Peter Mungkuri, #47-18 - acrylic and ink on linen
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| by Alec Baker, #3-18 - acrylic on linen
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| by Alec Baker, #44-18 - acrylic on linen
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| by Taylor Cooper, #17-120 - acrylic on belgian linen
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| by Witjiti George, #17-25 - acrylic on belgian linen
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| by Witjiti George, #17-461 - acrylic on belgian linen
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| by Witjiti George, #17-365 - acrylic on belgian linen
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| by Witjiti George, #17-2 - acrylic on belgian linen
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