Minnie Pwerle
Minnie Pwerle | |
---|---|
Born | between 1910 and 1922 near Utopia, Northern Territory, Australia |
Died | 18 March 2006 |
Known for | Painting |
Movement | Contemporary Indigenous Australian art |
Minnie Pwerle (also Minnie Purla[1] or Minnie Motorcar Apwerl;[2] born between 1910 and 1922 – 18 March 2006) was an Australian Aboriginal artist. She came from Utopia, Northern Territory (Unupurna in local language), a cattle station in the Sandover area of Central Australia 300 kilometres (190 mi) northeast of Alice Springs.
Minnie began painting in 2000 at about the age of 80, and her pictures soon became popular and sought-after works of contemporary Indigenous Australian art. In the years after she took up painting on canvas until she died in 2006, Minnie's works were exhibited around Australia and collected by major galleries, including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Gallery. With popularity came pressure from those keen to acquire her work. She was allegedly "kidnapped" by people who wanted her to paint for them, and there have been media reports of her work being forged. Minnie's work is often compared with that of her sister-in-law Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who also came from the Sandover and took up acrylic painting late in life. Minnie's daughter, Barbara Weir, is a respected artist in her own right.
Personal life
Minnie was born in the early 20th century near
Pwerle (in the
Estimates of Minnie's birthdate vary widely. The National Gallery of Victoria estimates around 1915;[2] Birnberg's biographical survey of Indigenous artists from central Australia gives a birth date of around 1920;[9] The new McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Art suggests around 1922;[4] Elizabeth Fortescue's biographical essay in Art of Utopia offers a range between 1910 and 1920.[10] The uncertainty arises because Indigenous Australians often estimate dates of birth by comparison with other events, especially for those born before contact with European Australians.[11] Minnie was one of six children, and had three sisters: Molly, born around 1920, Emily, born around 1922, and Galya, born in the 1930s.[10] She was of the Anmatyerre and Alyawarre Aboriginal language groups.[2][9]
In about 1945, Minnie had an affair with a married man,
Minnie went on to have six further children with her husband "Motorcar" Jim Ngala,[4] including Aileen, Betty, Raymond and Dora Mpetyane, and two others who by 2010 had died.[17] Her grandchildren include Fred Torres, who founded private art gallery DACOU in 1993,[18] and artist Teresa Purla (or Pwerle).[19]
Minnie began painting in late 1999[10] or 2000,[4] when she was almost 80. When asked why she had not begun earlier (painting and batik works had been created at Utopia for over 20 years), her daughter Barbara Weir reported Minnie's answer as being that "no-one had asked her".[20] By the 2000s, she was reported as living at Alparra, the largest of Utopia's communities, or at Urultja (also Irrultja, again in the Sandover region).[14] Sprightly and outgoing, even in her eighties she could outrun younger women chasing goannas for bushfood, and she continued to create art works until two days before her death on 18 March 2006.[4][9][21] She was outlived by all her sisters except Maggie Pwerle, mother of artists Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre (or Pitjara).[10]
Career
In the 1970s and 1980s Utopia became well known for the design and production of batiks.[22] By 1981 there were 50 artists at Utopia creating batik works;[23] 88 artists participated in a major design project supported by the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association.[5] Although several sources comment that artistic activity at Utopia began with batik and only later moved to painting, they do not state whether or not Minnie was a textile artist before she took up the brush. The National Gallery of Victoria's brief biography suggests that she did not participate in the making of batik, but she was aware of it.[2]
When Minnie decided to take up painting in 2000 while she waited for her daughter Barbara to complete a canvas in an Adelaide workshop,
There were many group and solo exhibitions of Minnie's work at private galleries between 2000 and 2006. These included exhibitions at Japinka Gallery in Western Australia in 2003 and 2005,[29] Adelaide's Dacou Gallery in 2000 and 2002,[25] Sydney's Gallery Savah between 2000 and 2002 as well as in 2006,[30] and Melbourne's Flinders Lane Gallery in 2000, 2004 and 2006, the last of which was a joint exhibition conducted with her three sisters,[31] all of whom are artists in their own right.[4][10]
Desert art specialist Professor Vivien Johnson noted that Minnie was one of the Utopia artists whose style was "radically different from [that of] all the other painting communities in the Western Desert—and stunningly successful in the market place".[32] Her most famous fellow artist was Emily Kngwarreye, whose painting Earth's Creation in 2007 sold for over $1 million, setting a record for the price paid for a painting by an Indigenous Australian artist.[33] Unlike Minnie, Emily had been an active participant in the early batik movement at Utopia.[34]
Minnie (like Emily) was often placed under considerable pressure to produce works.[4] She was reportedly "kidnapped" by people "keen to go to often quite bizarre lengths to acquire" her work.[4] Minnie's experience reflected broader issues in the industry surrounding artists, who were often older, had limited education or English language ability, and faced serious poverty both themselves and amongst their families.[35] In addition to being pressured to paint by others, there were media reports suggesting that some of the vast number of paintings traded under Minnie's name were not created by her at all.[36][37]
Style of painting
Minnie's style was spontaneous, and typified by "bold" and "vibrant" colour executed with great freedom.
Minnie's paintings include two main design themes. The first is free-flowing and parallel lines in a pendulous outline, depicting the
Legacy
Minnie's art was quickly added to major public collections such as the
Regarded as one of Australia's leading contemporary women artists, Minnie ranks alongside other notable Indigenous female painters Dorothy Napangardi, Gloria Petyarre and Kathleen Petyarre.[44][45] One of a number of women such as Emily Kngwarreye who dominated central and western desert painting in the first decade of the 21st century,[46] Minnie is considered to be one of Australia's best-known Indigenous artists,[10] whose work "the market couldn't get enough [of]".[4]
Major collections
- Art Gallery of NSW[4]
- Art Gallery of South Australia[4]
- redrock gallery
- Kelton Foundation[4]
- Kreglinger Collection[4]
- National Gallery of Victoria[2]
- Queensland Art Gallery[4]
- Thomas Vroom Collection[4]
- Hank Ebes Collection[9]
- AMP Collection[9]
References
- ^ a b Toohey, Justice John (30 May 1980). Anmatjirra and Alyawarra Land Claim to Utopia Pastoral Lease (PDF). Reports of the Aboriginal Land Commissioner. Melbourne: Aboriginal Land Commissioner. pp. 23–24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f "Minnie Motorcar Apwerl". Tradition and Transformation: Indigenous art in the NGV collection. National Gallery of Victoria. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ^ "Minnie Pwerle - Aboriginal Art News". news.aboriginalartdirectory.com. Retrieved 18 August 2022.
- ^ ISBN 0-522-85317-X.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-85575-234-7.
- ISBN 978-0-7347-6360-0.
- ^ "Kinship and skin names". People and culture. Central Land Council. Archived from the original on 10 November 2010. Retrieved 23 October 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-85575-234-7.
- ^ ISBN 1-876622-47-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Fortescue, Elizabeth; Obermeier, Werner (2008). Art of Utopia. Adelaide, SA: Boomerang Art. pp. 6–17.
- ISBN 1-876622-47-4.
- ^ Usher, Robin (15 July 2004). "Joining dots on the way to Utopia". The Age. Archived from the original on 24 May 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ a b c Lacey, Stephen (18 November 2006). "Spirited away, but with a happy ending". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ a b c Beck, Chris (18 February 2006). "The Pwerle Sisters". The Age. Archived from the original on 14 July 2007. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "Emily in Japan Part 1". Message Stick. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 26 July 2009. Archived from the original on 17 September 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ISBN 0-19-550649-9.
- ^ Mbantua Fine Art Gallery & Cultural Museum. "Minnie Pwerle". Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 14 July 2010.
- ^ "About Us". Dacou Aboriginal Art. Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "Teresa Purla (Pwerle)". Japingka Gallery. 2006. Archived from the original on 21 February 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
- ^ McCulloch-Uehlin, Susan (2002). "Minnie Pwerle: bush melon stories". Australian Art Collector. 22 (Oct–Dec 2002): 176.
- ^ Fortescue, Elizabeth; Obermeier, Werner (2008). "Creation of a masterpiece". Art of Utopia. Adelaide, SA: Boomerang Art. p. 114.
- ISBN 0-7148-3752-0.
- ISBN 0-9592406-0-8.
- ^ "Minnie Pwerle Paintings". Utopia Lane Art. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
- ^ a b "Minnie Pwerle detailed Bio". Dacou Aboriginal Art. Archived from the original on 1 March 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "20th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award" (PDF). Catalogue. NATSIAA. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "22nd National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award" (PDF). Catalogue. NATSIAA. 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 March 2011. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "50 of Australia's Most Collectable Artists 2004". Australian Art Collector. 27. 2004. Archived from the original on 20 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "Minnie Pwerle". Japinka Gallery. 2006. Archived from the original on 26 November 2007. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "Minnie Pwerle". Gallery Savah. Archived from the original on 19 July 2008. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ^ "Minnie Pwerle". Flinders Lane Gallery. Archived from the original on 17 June 2005. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
- ISBN 0-19-550649-9.
- ^ "'Earth' comes home". ABC News. 13 March 2009. Archived from the original on 13 March 2009. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
- ISBN 978-0-7241-0299-0.
- ISBN 978-0-642-71788-7. Archived from the original on 1 November 2010. Retrieved 14 July 2010.)
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link - ^ Marks, Kathy (18 June 2007). "Aboriginal artists are conned into selling works worth thousands for wine and Viagra". The Independent. Archived from the original on 8 November 2012. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
- ^ Lacey, Stephen (16 April 2007). "High-tech battle against fakes". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 15 June 2022. Retrieved 2 July 2010.
- ^ ISBN 1-86508-305-4.
- ISBN 978-0-7347-6360-0.
- ^ a b McCulloch, Susan (2005). "Late bloomer [Profile of artist Minnie Pwerle]". Australian Art Collector. 32 (Apr–Jun 2005): 84–88.
- ^ Eccles, Jeremy (20 December 2009). "The Met admits Aboriginal art". Aboriginal Art News. Archived from the original on 12 December 2010. Retrieved 5 July 2010.
- ^ "Minnie Pwerle Rugs". Collections. Designer Rugs.
- ISBN 978-1-74066-609-1.
- ISBN 0-522-85317-X.
- ISBN 978-1-74175-817-7.
- ISBN 978-0-86840-994-8.
External links
- [Example of Minnie's early work], Anunapa, Akali (2001), National Gallery of Victoria.
- Photographic portrait of the artist at Mbantua fine art gallery and cultural museum.
- Minnie Pwerle on Artabase