Mimih and Pet Kangaroo, c. 1970

natural earth pigments on stringybark

100 x 110cm

$7,000

Artwork story: Created at Oenpelli near the Liverpool River Escarpment and purchased from Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Canberra, in 1973. John Namerredje Guymala was a superb draftsman with a recognisably individual ‘hand’. The beautifully articulated patterns of rarrk that decorate his figures epitomise the Bininj notion of aesthetics in painting referred to as kabimbebme, literally ‘colour coming out’. In 1973, Namerredje and his family moved to Yaymini outstation, far to the south of Maningrida, which they shared with Wally Mandarrk and his family. In the 1970s, his work was collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board and by the American collector and professor of English literature, Ed Ruhe. Namerredje’s paintings were selected for The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974 till 1976, as well as Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984. In this early work, Namerredje employed the traditional Oenpelli X Ray rock art style to show the internal organs of a kangaroo, and uses his traditional parallel rarrk in a style like his countryman Lofty Nadjamerrek. It is typical of Namerredje that his works are painted on bark with a monochrome background with just one or two dominant figurative elements. His later works abandon the X Ray style, but maintain the monochrome background. These later paintings use cross hatching or blocks of colour instead of parallel line work. He is likely to have been under the influence of Wally Mandarrk at the time He is best known for his depictions of the Ngalkunburriyaymi female spirit. His figurative paintings are very distinctive. His striking figures filled with parallel rarrk or cross hatching.

Stockroom

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Guymala Namarredje

c.1926 – c.1978

Region: Arnhem Land
Community: Gunbalanya (Oenpelli, Kunbarllanjnja)
Language group: Kunwinjku

Mimih and Pet Kangaroo, c. 1970

natural earth pigments on stringybark

100 x 110cm

$7,000

Artwork story: Created at Oenpelli near the Liverpool River Escarpment and purchased from Aboriginal Arts and Crafts, Canberra, in 1973. John Namerredje Guymala was a superb draftsman with a recognisably individual ‘hand’. The beautifully articulated patterns of rarrk that decorate his figures epitomise the Bininj notion of aesthetics in painting referred to as kabimbebme, literally ‘colour coming out’. In 1973, Namerredje and his family moved to Yaymini outstation, far to the south of Maningrida, which they shared with Wally Mandarrk and his family. In the 1970s, his work was collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board and by the American collector and professor of English literature, Ed Ruhe. Namerredje’s paintings were selected for The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974 till 1976, as well as Kunwinjku Bim at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984. In this early work, Namerredje employed the traditional Oenpelli X Ray rock art style to show the internal organs of a kangaroo, and uses his traditional parallel rarrk in a style like his countryman Lofty Nadjamerrek. It is typical of Namerredje that his works are painted on bark with a monochrome background with just one or two dominant figurative elements. His later works abandon the X Ray style, but maintain the monochrome background. These later paintings use cross hatching or blocks of colour instead of parallel line work. He is likely to have been under the influence of Wally Mandarrk at the time He is best known for his depictions of the Ngalkunburriyaymi female spirit. His figurative paintings are very distinctive. His striking figures filled with parallel rarrk or cross hatching.