Footnotes

PROVENANCE
Maningrida Arts & Culture, Northern Territory (label attached verso, cat. 384-09)
Annandale Galleries, Sydney (label attached verso)
The Bill and Anne Gregory Collection, Sydney

EXHIBITED
John Mawurndjul and John Bulun Bulun: New Work, Annandale Galleries, Sydney, 14 April - 23 May 2015

This painting is accompanied by Maningrida Arts & Culture documentation (attached verso)


Arnhem Land Bark Paintings and Sculpture from the Collection of Bill and Anne Gregory
Lots 21 - 33

For Directors of Annandale Galleries, Bill and Anne Gregory, 1996 simultaneously marked the beginning of two of their most significant and longstanding professional collaborations, and also the start of a new personal chapter as passionate collectors of Aboriginal art. For it was in that year that they held their first ever bark painting show – Big Bark in collaboration with Buku-Larrnggay Mulka Centre in Yirrkala – and also planted the seed for a Maningrida show in the following year with art advisor of Maningrida Arts & Culture, Andrew Hughes. Their aim was to challenge a widely-held perception of bark painting as 'primitive' and 'ethnographic' and to demonstrate that barks and sculpture could stand up against Australian and international contemporary Western art. In 1997 they held their first solo exhibitions by Aboriginal artists, John Mawurndjul and Johnny Bulun Bulun. Art Critic John McDonald acclaimed of the show: "it is impossible to imagine anything more stunning than the bark paintings of John Mawurndjul at Annandale Galleries".1

With this began a regular program of annual group and solo exhibitions from the region that continues today, often preceded or followed by exhibitions of international contemporary artists such as multidisciplinary trailblazer William Kentridge and English Minimalist, Alan Charlton. This has allowed Bill and Anne to share their passion and journey and to introduce new, sophisticated collectors to the impact and power of Aboriginal bark painting.

Since the beginning of this journey, the Gregorys have been discerning collectors, selecting some of the best examples of bark painting and sculpture over the past 25 years to add to their personal collection: 'I am always looking for the watershed works that herald new directions in style, employ changes in materials or presentation and conceptual shifts that fundamentally change my perceptions about how to respond to the work. Most importantly, I am on the lookout for the rise of new artists bringing new blood and sometimes-radical new perspectives to the work. It is in observing these shifts and identifying new 'moments in time' and then supporting these initiatives through exhibitions at my gallery or personally acquiring the work and sharing it with others that I derive the greatest satisfaction as an art lover and collector.'2

The selected works for this auction illustrate Bill and Anne's interest in the cultural and artistic family relationships between artists such as father and daughter, Tommy Gondorra Steele and Fiona Mason Steele as well as brothers Owen Yalandja and Crusoe Kurddal. Also evident in this offering, is their particular passion for the work of internationally acclaimed master bark painter, John Mawurndjul. Celebrated as an innovator, for his ability to merge the traditional with the contemporary, and for his finely executed rarrk (cross-hatching), Bill and Anne have collected his work in great depth: 'His paintings may be sought after for their impact and aesthetic beauty, butit is their spiritual resonance that sets the artist and his work apart'.3

Francesca Cavazzini

1. J McDonald, "The fine art of bridge-building", Sydney Morning Herald, 27 September 1997
2. Bill Gregory in Spirit in Variation: The Art of Maningrida, 7 November-8 December 2007, exh. cat.
3. Bill Gregory in John Mawurndjul, 7 November – 9 December 2006, exh. cat.