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Ancestral power and the aesthetic: Arnhem Land paintings and objects from the Donald Thomson Collection
Presented by the Ian Potter Museum of Art, the University of Melbourne, and Museum Victoria
02 Jun 2009 to 23 Aug 2009
Curator: Lindy Allen, Senior Curator, Anthropology (Northern Australia), Museum Victoria
From his very first week in Arnhem Land, Donald Thomson became passionate about and intrigued with Yolngu art. At the camp of the legendary Djapu leader, Wonggu, at Caledon Bay, Thomson was educated about both the secular and sacred notions of the art. He photographed and filmed the old man completing an instructive painting over a few days and then bought the bark painting, the first, as well as the brushes that Wonggu had used. These are a focal point in the exhibition, and, as with Thomson and his first encounter with Wonggu in July 1935, engage outsiders in a dialogue about the meanings and purpose of Yolngu art. From this first very instructive painting, Donald Thomson went on to create an assemblage of the most captivating works relating to body painting and the travels of ancestors, as well as a set of singularly important works executed over three days in September 1942 that clearly lay claim to Yolngu ownership of major clan estates of Blue Mud Bay in north-eastern Arnhem Land.
Donald Thomson was the first to document in detail the sacred meanings associated with the use of specific designs and patterns in the Yolngu art. He wrote extensively while in the field about how the works were created, the context for using specific designs, the classes of paintings and designs that moved from the sacred to the profane, and the embodiment of the power of the ancestors in painting.
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