GUYMALA NAMARREDJE

Born around 1926 very little is known about John Namerredje Guymala’s early life, and he was already in his mid 40s before he created any bark paintings for sale. A countryman and contemporary of Lofty Nadjamerrek , Curly Bardkadubbu and Dick Murramurra he spoke Kunwinjku Language and in 1973, he moved with his wife and children to Yaymini outstation, far to the south of Maningrida, which he shared with Wally Mandarrk and his family.


Namerredje was a rock art painter, and his earliest barks were executed in the traditional Oenpelli X ray rock art style, most likely under the influence of Wally Mandarrk. These paintings showed the internal organs of animals and use traditional parallel rarrk. They were created on bark with a monochrome background and 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.


Namerredje was a superb draftsman with a recognisably individual ‘hand’. The beautiful rarrk crosshatch clan patterns that he painted to decorate his figures have been said to ‘epitomise the Bininj notion of aesthetics in painting referred to as kabimbebme’, literally ‘colour coming out’. His most emblematic works featured male and female spirits, the rainbow serpent, Mimi’s, and kangaroos.


In the 1970s, his work was collected by the Aboriginal Arts Board and by the American collector and professor of English literature, Ed Ruhe whose bark paintings are now housed in the Kluge Rhue Collection at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, USA. Namerredje’s paintings were selected for The Art of Aboriginal Australia, which toured North America in 1974 till 1976, as well as Kunwinjku Bim, the landmark exhibition (with illustrated catalogue) which was held at the National Gallery of Victoria in 1984, six years after his death.

His barks were also a feature of the Art of Aboriginal Australia exhibition that toured Canada prior to the advent of the burgeoning Aboriginal art market. Curated by the former Director of the South Australian Museum Robert Edwards it toured to prestigious museums and galleries in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Quebec, Montreal, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Prince Edward Island.

© Adrian Newstead

Literature:

Edwards, R., Art of Aboriginal Australia presented by Rothmans of Pall Mall, Rothmans of Pall Mall Canada Ltd., Canada, 1974, cat. 78, p. 51 (illus.)

Brody, A., Kunwinjku Bim, Western Arnhem land Paintings from the collection of the Aboriginal Arts Board, National gallery of Victoria, 1984-1985