John Mawurndjul, Milmilngkan, September 2004
© Foto Erika Koch. From Museum Tinguely

Synchronicity strikes again! Just two days ago I wrote about rock art in Northern Australia. Now I’ve just finished looking at Art Daily’s post about an exhibition in Museum Tinguely in Basel, Switzerland of work by a contemporary indigenous artist from the same area, Western Arnhem Land in Northern Australia.

« rarrk » – John Mawurndjul : Journey through Time in Northern Australia is the first retrospective exhibition of this artist in a European art museum.

John Mawurndjul developed his own manner and mode of treating the traditional images. He gradually outgrew the motifs of Aboriginal iconography…. to treat it today with entirely new concepts and in a totally new form. His works are imposing by their large scale, and though the eucalyptus bark still furnishes the support for his paintings, the natural earth pigments – red and yellow ochre, pieces of natural chalk and charcoal – are now intentionally mixed with modern, soluble binding agents. The artist changes the pictorial content in a continuous process of transformation: using a cross-hatching technique (rarrk in Kuninjku).

John Mawurndjul’s artistic development… refutes the widespread prejudice in Europe that denies ‘Indigenous’ artists the right to a personified individuality and the capacity to innovate outside the boundaries of the authority of their community. He further demonstrates in his paintings that dealing actively with traditional sources can be a fruitful experience if one is capable of understanding tradition other than as an anonymous and inalterable corset.

The museum’s opening page is a nice introduction with its moving images of the show. The page about the exhibition is accompanied with photos, and amongst the several links is one to a press photo gallery where you can open full screen images of several examples of Mawurndjul’s work, as well as some examples by a few other indigenous artists selected for the accompanying historical survey. I admire today’s indigenous artists who have been able to meld their ancient traditions with personal interpretations, originality and vision. I’m also grateful that some art museums offer virtual exhibitions online for those of us unable to attend the real thing.