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Arts / ‘Sublime’ sampling of paintings in Western Desert exhibition

‘Untitled’ by Yannima Pikarli Tommy Watson, 2014 (detail), acrylic on Belgian linen.
“WESTERN Desert Sublime” is an exhibition drawing on the Craig Edwards gift to the Australian National University, believed to be the most valuable donation of its kind yet given to an Australian university.

The gift comprises 120 Western Desert paintings valued at over $9 million dollars and vice-chancellor, Prof Brian Schmidt says: “These paintings will make a huge contribution in defining the whole tenor of the university environment.”

“It is a historic and momentous gift,” he says.

The show opening today (October 18) at the ANU Drill Hall Gallery is described as “a concise yet spectacular sampling” from the collection.

Edwards, who is an alumnus of the ANU, began collecting in the mid-’90s, at a time when the first wave of Western Desert painting had achieved major international recognition.

While the painters of the first wave were mostly men, the second wave, post-1995, saw the emergence of a cohort of senior women. The collection is abundant in works by some of the most impressive of these women artists, whose paintings depict their ancestral country, the stories handed down by their mothers, the traditional sites of food gathering and the places where ceremonies are performed.

An outstanding example is seen in the work of Naata Nungurrayi. Born in 1932 and the matriarch of a great family of Western Desert artists, she was nominated among the top 50 of Australia’s most collectable artists by the “Australian Art Collector” magazine in 2004. The ANU’s Edwards Collection holds no fewer than 34 of her works.

Anne Martin, director of the Tjabal Indigenous Higher Education Centre at the ANU, says of the exhibition and the collection: “When the artists or their relatives, or people from their communities come to visit ANU and see the respect that is given to these art works… and how they have created such a powerful moment within our university space.”

“I think those visitors will feel strengthened by the inspiration to continue and will understand the importance of sharing,” she says.

“Western Desert Sublime”, ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Kingsley Street (off Barry Drive), October 18  to December 16. All welcome.

 

 

 

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Helen Musa

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