DECEASED ARTIST - Dec 12 Barrupu Yunupingu (b.
1948) paints Ancestral Fire: the minyātji of the Gumatj clan embodying gurtha or fire and place.
The diamond design represents fire: the red, flames; the white, smoke or ash; the black charcoal; the yellow, dust.
The structure connects the clans of this sequence of ancestral events. Barrupuās chains of rough diamonds resemble paintings by her father Munggurrawuy and his brothers of the 1940s.
The totemic significance of fire to the Yunupingu family of the Gumatj clan is paramount: the clan language,Dhuwalandja, is itself the tongue of flame.
This language cuts through all artifice.
It incinerates dishonesty leaving only the bones of the truth. Barrupu resides at Yirrkala and worked as a nurse at the Yirrkala Clinic and Hospital from the 1960s until its closure in 1975.
Most days Barrupu and her closest sister Nyapanyapa use a deck at the Art Centre, on the site of the former clinic, as a studio.
Nyapanyapa won the 3-D Award (with a painting and video) at the prestigious Telstra Annual at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in 2007. Barrupuās work was honoured with a solo exhibition at the Art Centre for 2009 Garma Festival with the National Gallery and Art Gallery of NSW acquiring several works.
Barrupuās other siblings include Australians of the Year Galarrwuy and Mandawuy Yunupingu and Telstra Award winner Gulumbu Yunupingu..
DECEASED ARTIST - Dec 12 Barrupu Yunupingu (b.
1948) paints Ancestral Fire: the minyātji of the Gumatj clan embodying gurtha or fire and place.
The diamond design represents fire: the red, flames; the white, smoke or ash; the black charcoal; the yellow, dust.
The structure connects the clans of this sequence of ancestral events. Barrupuās chains of rough diamonds resemble paintings by her father Munggurrawuy and his brothers of the 1940s.
The totemic significance of fire to the Yunupingu family of the Gumatj clan is paramount: the clan language,Dhuwalandja, is itself the tongue of flame.
This language cuts through all artifice.
It incinerates dishonesty leaving only the bones of the truth. Barrupu resides at Yirrkala and worked as a nurse at the Yirrkala Clinic and Hospital from the 1960s until its closure in 1975.
Most days Barrupu and her closest sister Nyapanyapa use a deck at the Art Centre, on the site of the former clinic, as a studio.
Nyapanyapa won the 3-D Award (with a painting and video) at the prestigious Telstra Annual at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory in 2007. Barrupuās work was honoured with a solo exhibition at the Art Centre for 2009 Garma Festival with the National Gallery and Art Gallery of NSW acquiring several works.
Barrupuās other siblings include Australians of the Year Galarrwuy and Mandawuy Yunupingu and Telstra Award winner Gulumbu Yunupingu..