Ginger Riley Munduwalawala
(Australia circa 1936–01 Sep 2002)
- Language group
- Marra, Gulf region
- Title
- Limmen Bight River Country
- Other titles:
- Untitled
- Place of origin
-
Northern Territory →
Australia
- Year
- 1992
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- synthetic polymer paint on canvas
- Dimensions
-
243.5 x 243.5 x 3.7cm stretcher
- Signature & date
- Signed l.l. corner , red synthetic polymer paint "GINGER RILEY". Not dated.
- Credit
- Mollie Gowing Acquisition Fund for Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1992
- Accession number
- 291.1992
- Copyright
- © Estate Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Courtesy of Alcaston Gallery
- Location
- Not on display
- Further information
Traditional in subject matter and experimental in style, the paintings of Ginger Riley Munduwalawala are impressive pictorial presences, not least because of their scale and dramatic colour schemes. As an elder of his community, the artist is entrusted with the preservation of aspects of the stories of his mother's people at Four Arches, 45 kilometres inland from Limmen Bight in the Gulf of Carpentaria.Limmen Bight country is the landscape depicted in this stately retelling of the story of the first being, a kangaroo, shown in solitary grandeur at the bottom of Riley's successively layered composition. In order to populate the world, it was the task of this being to find himself a mate. Garimala, an ancestral snake, recommended he seek out a young girl, a quest which leads the kangaroo into many deprivations and dangers. The near-fatal spearing shown in the second register was probably in punishment for his trespass on the territory of another clan. The hump-like landforms which characterise the work, and Limmen Bight itself, are believed to have resulted from the writhings of the great serpents whose appearance in this painting, and elsewhere in Aboriginal art, is significantly hieratic.
[AGNSW Handbook 1999]
- Bibliography (9)
-
Hetti Perkins (Australia) (Author), Art + soul: a journey into the world of Aboriginal art, Carlton, 2010, 242-243 (colour illus.), 244 (colour illus., detail), 282.
Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales: highlights from the collection, Sydney, 2008, 40, 41 (colour illus.).
Art Gallery of New South Wales (Australia, estab. 1874), Contemporary Aboriginal art: The Mollie Gowing acquisition fund, Sydney, 2006, (colour illus.). not paginated
'The boss of colour' by Judith Ryan, pg. 16., Look Nov 2002, Nov 2002, 16 (colour illus.).
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), Biennale of Sydney 2000, Woolloomooloo, 2000. no catalogue numbers
Bruce James (Australia) (Author), Edmund Capon (England; Australia, b.1940) (Director), Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, Domain, 1999, 233 (colour illus.).
'Yiribana Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Gallery', pg. 6-9., The Art Gallery of New South Wales Bulletin Apr 1995-May 1995, Apr 1995-May 1995, 8 (colour illus.).
Margo Neale (Australia) (Author), Yiribana: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collection, Sydney, 1994, 48, 49 (colour illus.), 137, 139. plate no. 21
Ewen McDonald (Australia) (Editor), The Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 1994, 104 (colour illus.).
- Exhibition history (4)
-
Gamarada, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 15 Nov 1996–16 Feb 1997.
ADDING - The Blue Pacific, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, 01 Aug 1998–29 Aug 1998.
Biennale of Sydney 2000, Art Gallery of New South Wales, 26 May 2000–30 Jul 2000.
The Dreamers (2009-10), Art Gallery of New South Wales, 09 May 2009 -.
