Untitled (Mimi Spirits), 2005

oil on canvas

122 x 128 cm

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: The Collection of Gordon and Elaine Syron, NSW
Artwork story: Gordon Syron is often justifiably referred to as the father of urban Aboriginal art. From his first painting created in jail during the 1960s, he has always created works with a fire in his belly, never succumbing to financial stress, market pressure, or changing stylistic taste. He has therefore maintained an unwarranted degree of invisibility whist producing uncompromisingly graffiti-like, provocative, works often fuelled with anger. As Prof. Margo Neale, former Head of Indigenous Knowledges at the National Museum of Australia has written, Syron’s works have 'always been about the message, never about the look.’ Syrons oevre is characterised by surreal images of frustration and attempts to maintain sanity when faced with on-going injustice and colonisation. In this work the British Crown is engaged in a colonial game of chess with the first Australians while the Mimi spirits of their ancestors hover above.

Click to enlarge

b. 1941

oil on canvas

122 x 128 cm

Price on application — enquire

Provenance: The Collection of Gordon and Elaine Syron, NSW
Artwork story: Gordon Syron is often justifiably referred to as the father of urban Aboriginal art. From his first painting created in jail during the 1960s, he has always created works with a fire in his belly, never succumbing to financial stress, market pressure, or changing stylistic taste. He has therefore maintained an unwarranted degree of invisibility whist producing uncompromisingly graffiti-like, provocative, works often fuelled with anger. As Prof. Margo Neale, former Head of Indigenous Knowledges at the National Museum of Australia has written, Syron’s works have 'always been about the message, never about the look.’ Syrons oevre is characterised by surreal images of frustration and attempts to maintain sanity when faced with on-going injustice and colonisation. In this work the British Crown is engaged in a colonial game of chess with the first Australians while the Mimi spirits of their ancestors hover above.