Revolution Elsewhere?

I’m afraid I’ve been slacking, BOS-wise. The distraction came in the form of the magnificent tome that Colin and Liz Laverty have just published – ‘Beyond Sacred’. They’re collectors of abstract art; whether it’s of Western or Aboriginal origin. But they’ve become famous for their persistence and selectivity in the indigenous area, building a mighty collection since they first saw Papunya painting at the Brisbane Expo in 1988.

Now they’re repaying the artists by giving a permanent, transportable record to many of their finest paintings; and backing that up with some serious essays considering the fraught question as to whether what Aboriginal artists do is actually the same as what Picasso or Turner or de Kooning did in terms of capturing ways of seeing or thinking about the world on canvas. For there are some who would stick the works on canvas and bark that have emerged since the 1970s in a time warp, and limit them to being of ethnographic interest only – the story rather than the image – or (worse) condemn them as either decorative ‘tourist’ art or some sort of extension of the New Age, relying on some mystical spirituality.

It’s Art!

But the unanimous conclusion in the book is that “a new visualisation and idea of the continent (Australia) emerged from the aesthetic impulse of (the Aboriginal artists’) process of painting”, in the words of Judith Ryan, Senior Curator at the NGV.

Her colleague Nick Waterlow, a man with three Sydney Biennales under his belt, goes so far as to list three “equally defining non-figurative movements” during the 20^th Century - Malevich, Kandinsky, Mondrian et al; Pollock, Rothko, de Kooning et al; and the Papunya Tula artists of the 70s. And the word “Revolution” comes into all of the essays.

Only a Euro-Revolution?

Which immediately reminded me of the title of our BOS2008 – ‘Revolutions : Forms That Turn’, in case you’d forgotten. It’s certainly graced with some of the key moments that turned things round in the Western world – Duchamp, Maholy-Nagy, Cage, Calder, et al. But you could hardly call Balang Kubarrku’s coiled serpent truly representative of the things that turned Aboriginal art into such a glorious phenomenon. And Doreen Reid Nakamarra’s wonderful sand painting at Wharf 2/3 is a great work from today; it’s just not part of the Revolution.

Why wouldn’t Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev have put the Aussie revolution into her Big Blender alongside Vasarely and Russolo – who would have offered interesting visual comparisons? And what about aiPotu and Sam Durant with their naive international tributes to the indigenous cause?

Museums Ride to the Rescue

Fortunately, other institutions have filled the gap. The National Museum has sent a really exciting collection of early Papunya canvases from Canberra – not the first boards that appeared in 1971, but some of the earliest paintings that emerged when the men were first discovering and mastering “the aesthetic impulse” that grew directly from the process of painting. And they will outlast even the Biennale at the Australian Museum until November 2.

Just two of the paintings justify my claims. Uta Uta Tjangala’s ‘Yumari‘ from 1981 is an almost 4 metre high combination of map, story, the figure of Tjuntamutu and sheer visual power. This was recognised in 1983 when it was seen at the Sao Paulo Biennale; 1981’s Perspecta in Sydney challengingly featured Papunya artists beside white. We seem to have lost sight of this pioneering. But surely a work like Tim Leura’s ‘Trial by Fire’ from 1985 will remind us. Another mighty canvas, this features the test by fire of a Tjapaltjarri man, his dotted country overlaid by wreaths of smoke that form into two fiercesome figures.

And yet this powerful work has been unseen for 30 years since it, and 101 other canvases, were donated to the NMA, rolled up and put away.

It’s time for “some of the most highly evolved work the world has seen”, in the words of early Papunya Tula arts adviser Peter Fannin, to be hailed for the Revolution it was.

‘Beyond Sacred’ is published by Hardie Grant Books.

Part of the Laverty Collection is on show at the Newcastle Region Art Gallery until 31 August.

Jeremy Eccles has been writing and broadcasting about the arts since 1983, with an increasing specialisation in indigenous arts and culture. He’s currently an editor on the Aboriginal Arts Directory website.