Artiste : Barrupu Yunupiŋu Rita

Titre de l'œuvre : Gurtha

Pigments naturels sur écorce

Format : 182 x 97 cm

Provenance et certificat original : centre d'art aborigène de Yirrkala

Référence de la peinture : 3533I

© Photo : Aboriginal signature with the courtesy of the artist & Buku-Larrngay Mulka.

Explication de l’œuvre :

The Gumatj clan sacred design which Barrupu Yunupiŋu Rita (1947 - 2012) paints is gurtha or fire. But not just any fire. This is a Fire of supernatural intensity. So powerful that it transforms the land it touched for all time.

This work is solely the miny’tji of the Gumatj embodying gurtha or fire. The diamond patterning is the ‘miny’tji’, motif or sacred clan design, of this clan and this place. It summons the theme of this fire. The Gumatj clan design associated with these events, a diamond design, represents fire; the red flames, the white smoke and ash, the black charcoal and the yellow dust.

The totemic significance of fire to the Yunupiŋu family of the Gumatj clan is paramount. It is said that the Gumatj clan language, Dhuwalandja, is itself the tongue of flame. This language, or tongue, like the flame, cuts through all artifice. It

incinerates dishonesty leaving only the bones of the truth.

Collections :
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW
Charles Darwin University Art Collection
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC

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