Tiwi Murrakupuni, 2018

natural earth pigments on linen

polyptych, 45 x 45 cm (each)

Est. $3,500 – $4,500

Provenance: Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, Milikapiti, NT, Cat No. 310-18 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by certificate of authenticity from Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association
Artwork story: Murrakupuni is the Tiwi word for country, and this polyptych maps it from above. Four panels of warm brown ochre, each worked with the hand-crushed pigment that Jilamara artists have used for generations, carry a composition of nested oval forms traced in dotted lines of white and dark brown. The largest oval sweeps across the full width of the joined panels, containing within it a smaller closed form at the centre, the whole surface reading simultaneously as landscape, ceremony and body. The composition is the kind Judith Ryan, former Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, identified in Wilson's work as possessing dramatic use of negative space and simple, uncluttered arrangements — a spatial awareness she encountered when she viewed a body of his work at Jilamara in 2019. Wilson came to painting at Jilamara Arts and Crafts following his mother Carol Black, and has spoken of sitting alongside senior artists and learning from what is held in the Muluwurri Museum — the tutini poles, pamijini armbands, carvings and photographs of family. As he has described his process: big stick and small stick, people been doing that here for long time. They used to chew sticks to make brush and paint up poles and tunga. The means are old; the paintings are entirely his own. This work was made in 2018, the year Wilson was selected as a finalist in the inaugural King Wood Mallesons Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Prize at New South Wales Parliament House. He was a Telstra NATSIAA finalist in 2021. Louise Martin-Chew, 'Dino Wilson: A Rising Sun', Art Collector, issue 99, January–March 2022, artcollector.net.au.

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Sale 3 · Lot 18

Dino Wilson

1983 – 2023

Region: Tiwi Islands
Community: Wurrumiyanga (Nguiu)
Language group: Tiwi

Tiwi Murrakupuni, 2018

natural earth pigments on linen

polyptych, 45 x 45 cm (each)

Est. $3,500 – $4,500

Provenance: Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association, Milikapiti, NT, Cat No. 310-18 Private Collection, NSW Accompanied by certificate of authenticity from Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association
Artwork story: Murrakupuni is the Tiwi word for country, and this polyptych maps it from above. Four panels of warm brown ochre, each worked with the hand-crushed pigment that Jilamara artists have used for generations, carry a composition of nested oval forms traced in dotted lines of white and dark brown. The largest oval sweeps across the full width of the joined panels, containing within it a smaller closed form at the centre, the whole surface reading simultaneously as landscape, ceremony and body. The composition is the kind Judith Ryan, former Senior Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Victoria, identified in Wilson's work as possessing dramatic use of negative space and simple, uncluttered arrangements — a spatial awareness she encountered when she viewed a body of his work at Jilamara in 2019. Wilson came to painting at Jilamara Arts and Crafts following his mother Carol Black, and has spoken of sitting alongside senior artists and learning from what is held in the Muluwurri Museum — the tutini poles, pamijini armbands, carvings and photographs of family. As he has described his process: big stick and small stick, people been doing that here for long time. They used to chew sticks to make brush and paint up poles and tunga. The means are old; the paintings are entirely his own. This work was made in 2018, the year Wilson was selected as a finalist in the inaugural King Wood Mallesons Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Prize at New South Wales Parliament House. He was a Telstra NATSIAA finalist in 2021. Louise Martin-Chew, 'Dino Wilson: A Rising Sun', Art Collector, issue 99, January–March 2022, artcollector.net.au.