Artiste : John Mawurndjul

Titre de l'œuvre : Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpent)

Pigments naturels sur écorce

Format : 114 x 50 cm

Provenance et certificat : centre d'art aborigène de Maningrida

Référence de la peinture : 1886-12

© Photo : Aboriginal signature with the courtesy of the artist & Maningrida Arts

Explications sur l’œuvre :

John Mawurndjul is one of the leading Indigenous Australian artists, receiving world recognition for his work. Kuninjku bark painter and sculptor he was born in 1952 at Mumeka, an important camping site for members of the Kurulk clan on the Mann River some 50 kms south of Maningrida settlement.

Many of his early works are relatively small images of the rainbow serpent Ngalyod in snake-like form. However, in the late 1980s Mawurndjul began to produce larger paintings of this subject, which evoked the powerful twists and turns of the body of Ngalyod. The iridescent rarrk across Ngalyod's body captures the almost electric, radiating power of this being. In essence, the imagery of the rainbow serpent swallowing these other beings is a reference to site creation, of the yawkyawk joining with Ngalyod inside the earth and investing it with their everlasting power.

His work has been included in major overseas exhibitions dealing with Indigenous Australian art such as Crossroads in Japan (1992), Aratjara: Art of the first Australians in Germany and UK (1993-94), My country in Denmark (1999) and In the heart of Arnhem Land in France (2001). More recently, in 2000 his works was featured at the Sydney Biennale and in 1999, 2002 & 2016 he won the bark painting prize at the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award. 

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