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Ginger Riley Munduwalawala

Ginger Riley Munduwalawala (c.1936 – 1 September 2002) was an Aboriginal Australian contemporary artist. He was born in South East Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia in the Limmen Bight area, 45 kilometers inland from the Gulf of Carpentaria coast.[4] His first language was Marra,[5] now critically endangered.

Ginger Riley Munduwalawala
Borncirca 1936 (1936)
Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, Australia
Died1 September 2002 (aged 65–66)
Borroloola, Northern Territory, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting
Awards

Riley was known for his distinctive landscape style and daring use of bright acrylic colors to paint the land surrounding the Limmen Bight River, situated along the Gulf of Carpentaria coast southeast of Arnhem Land[6]—and the mythological figures who created the region.[3] This region is Riley's mother's land, of which he served as its 'guardian' and 'custodian.'[6] Adhering to Marra customs, Riley was not allowed to portray the Dreamings, or ancestral stories from his father's Marra land and therefore stuck to the song lines on his matrilineal side.[7] The landscape of Ginger Riley's mother country includes coastal saltwater that enters the Limmen Bight River, passes through mudflats and Marra territory, and finally reaches the ravine in the middle of the Four Archers – Gurrialadagauwulu.[8]He often depicted the landscape as if seen from a vantage point above the clouds.[6] Senior Aboriginal art curator, Wally Caruana, has speculated that this viewpoint represents the perspective of the white-breasted sea eagle, known as Ngak Ngak, which is Riley's totem.[6] Riley is also remembered for working with a whole visual composition, mixing and layering paint, and experimenting with different colors and effects.[9]

Riley's use of color sets him apart from many Aboriginal artists in Arnhem Land. By painting with acrylic paints on canvas, he diverged from the conventions of the more traditional Aboriginal art, restricted to natural materials sourced from the land, such as bark and ochre pigments.[10][11] Riley's distinctive landscapes and brilliant colors defied categorization and challenged stereotypes about what represented 'authentic' Aboriginal art.[11] His art can be seen as a fusion of 'Aboriginal' and 'contemporary.'[12]

In 2002, the Australian expressionist and Riley's longterm friend David Larwill, gave Riley the moniker "The Boss of Colour," while he was nearing the end of his life due to lung cancer.[13][8] The story goes that Larwill visited Riley in Melbourne, and greeted him with the words, "Ginger Riley, the boss of colour," highlighting Riley's accomplished skill of painting with radiant colors.[6]

Riley was awarded the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 1987, the Northern Territory's Alice Prize in 1992, John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize in 1993,[3] the first National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Art Award in 1993[14] and an Australia Council Fellowship for 1997/98.[1]

His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including at the 4th, 9th, 10th and 11th National Aboriginal Art Award, the 12th Telstra National Aboriginal Art Award, and the 13th and 14th Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award.[7]

The National Gallery of Victoria held a 10-year retrospective of his work in 1997, titled Mother Country in Mind: The Art of Ginger Riley Munduwalawala. It was the first time a public institution in Australia honored a living Aboriginal artist in this way.[15][6]

Early Life and Influences edit

Ginger Riley was born c.1936 in Marra Country, in South-Eastern Arnhem Land near Ngukurr, the former territory of the Roper River Mission.[7] In the 1950s, Riley began working as a stockman and laborer on the Nutwood Downs Station and other establishments in the Northern Territory.[16] Riley held a number of jobs before his painting career including his work as a police warden at Larrimah, a school groundsman in Darwin, a general maintenance worker for the Numbulwar Council and as a cleaner for Gemco mines at Groot Eylandt.[7]

During his time as a stockman, Riley met the renowned Western Aranda watercolorist, Albert Namatjira,[4] whose art was among the first to be exhibited by an Aboriginal.[4] This encounter left a profound impact on Riley, eventually prompting him to explore painting with acrylics three decades later.[17][18] Namatjira's colorful work inspired Riley to capture the colors of the land which he saw in his imagination, ochre colors proved to be unsatisfactory, leading Riley to work with acrylic paints. [8][6] In 1987, the Northern Territory Education Department established painting workshops in an old hospital in Ngukurr, where Riley had been residing since the late-1970s.[18][4] These workshops provided access to acrylic paints and served as the catalyst for Riley's distinguished career.[7][19] The art center, named "Beat Street," became a hub for extraordinary creative paintings in its first year. Alongside fellow Ngukurr artists Willie Gudabi and Djambu Barra Barra, Riley entered the Aboriginal art scene and quickly gained acclaim for his colorful landscapes and mythic narratives.[19][11]

The artists working alongside Ginger Riley in Ngukurr reflected the diversity of the region traced back to the establishment of the Roper River Mission in 1908.[10] The significant historical migration to the Roper River Mission played a pivotal role in shaping the unique style and thematic focus of art from the region.[20] The mission brought together clans from the surrounding regions comprising 8 different language groups.[10] The budding artists in Ngukurr drew upon their different stylistic traditions and iconography combined with the development of their individual creative styles.[10][20]

Visual Iconography edit

Riley's paintings depict his mother's country, the Limmen Bight area surrounding the Limmen Bight River and the rocky outcrop known as the Four Archers (Barrkuwiriji).[7] His characteristic landscape style and brilliant use of color brought Riley into the spotlight as an Aboriginal artist working with contemporary mediums.[11] Aside from the adventurous use of color, Riley’s works are also characteristic of unique iconography, depicting natural and supernatural narratives which took place in the Limmen Bight area, the coastal saltwater country of the Marra people, for which he is both a traditional owner, as well as a custodian (Djungkayi).[21]

In his paintings, Riley depicts the landscape of the land and the ancestral beings that created all of its natural features.[22] In Riley’s depiction of creation stories, Garimala is a salient theme. It is the double form of Bandian, the King Brown snake of the species Pseudechis australis. Although in Munduwalawala's work it looks as though they are two snakes, the Garimala is one entity.[23] They are often depicted as arching to face each other above the Four Archers or in heraldic symmetry on either side of a shark’s liver tree. Two other forms of transformations it shows include the Rainbow Serpent Wawalu as it traveled from the Four Archers to the rock Ngamiyukandji in the Limmen Bight River, and its metamorphosis into Bulukbun, the angry, fire-breathing serpent.

The Ngak Ngak, the white-breasted sea eagle, is one of the most central images in Riley’s works. The Ngak Ngak often appeared in profile as a guardian image in Riley’s paintings, looking over the country and protecting it.[8] Ngak Ngak created an island near the mouth of Limmnen Bright River when flying over it, this is called Beatrice Island or Yarramadji (shark, his mothers totem).[24]

Significant Exhibitions edit

In 1987, Gabrielle Pizzi, who was in the process of opening one of Australia's only galleries specializing in Aboriginal art, visited Ngukurr to select pieces for their exhibition. Opened in 1988, this was the second exhibition at the new Gabrielle Pizzi Gallery, featuring five works by Ginger Riley Munduwalawala. Ginger Riley Munduwalawala also traveled to Melbourne to attend the opening and speak about the works.[25]

Mother Country in Mind: The Art of Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, National Gallery of Victoria, 17 July – 22 September 1997[8]

Ginger Riley: The Boss of Colour,[26] Castlemaine Art Museum, January – 19 April 2015

Country and Western: Landscape Reimagined

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ a b c d e "Death of Mr Ginger Riley Munduwalawala" (PDF). Journals of the Senate. No. 31. Tuesday, 17 September 2002. The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia. 17 September 2002. pp. 737–738. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 September 2006.
  2. ^ "The Alice Prize - past winners and judges". The Alice Prize. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Ginger Riley Archived 2 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine, by Grace and Tamara
  4. ^ a b c d Art Gallery of New South Wales; Watson, Ken; Jones, Jonathan; Perkins, Hetti, eds. (2004). Tradition today: indigenous art in Australia. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales. ISBN 978-0-7347-6344-0.
  5. ^ Ryan, J., Riley, G., & National Gallery of Victoria. (1997). Ginger Riley. Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Alves, Tim (2014). Boss of Colour. Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia: Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum. ISBN 9780992475307.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  7. ^ a b c d e f Bassett, Sue; Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, eds. (2011). Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award 1984 - 2008: celebrating 25 years. Darwin NT: Charles Darwin University Press. ISBN 978-0-9806650-8-6.
  8. ^ a b c d e Ryan, Judith (2009). "'Different from other mob' : Ginger Riley Munduwalawala". Colour Country : art from Roper River. Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. pp. 38–45.
  9. ^ 8
  10. ^ a b c d Normand, Simon (2005). Stonecountry to saltwater: recent artwork & stories from Ngukurr, Arnhem Land. Ngukurr, NT.?: Simon Normand. ISBN 978-0-646-45446-7.
  11. ^ a b c d Bowdler, Cath (2009). Colour Country: Art from Roper River (1 ed.). Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. p. 38.
  12. ^ Hossack, Rebecca (9 September 2002). "Ginger Riley Munduwalawala - Aboriginal artist with a highly individual style". The Independent. Archived from the original on 14 September 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2011.
  13. ^ Ginger Riley, the 'boss of colour', dies, by Larissa Dubecki, 3 September 2002
  14. ^ Hill, Robert (8 April 1998). "Australian Heritage Commission sponsoring major indigenous art awards". Parlinfo. Press release. Retrieved 9 August 2022.
  15. ^ Ginger Riley Munduwalawala, Biography, National Gallery of Victoria
  16. ^ "Ginger Riley, b. 1937". National Portrait Gallery people. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  17. ^ Art Gallery of New South Wales; Watson, Ken; Jones, Jonathan; Perkins, Hetti, eds. (2004). Tradition today: indigenous art in Australia. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales. ISBN 978-0-7347-6344-0.
  18. ^ a b "Ginger Riley Munduwalawala". www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved 25 April 2024.
  19. ^ a b Bowdler, Cath (November 2011). "Luminous Bones, Djambu Barra Barra and the devil devil". Retrieved 28 April 2024.
  20. ^ a b Bowdler, Cath (April 2010). "Public Lecture: Art from Roper River". Cath Bowdler. Retrieved 30 April 2024.
  21. ^ Knight, Beverly (2001). Ginger Riley: Native Title. Melbourne, Victoria, Australia : Alcaston Gallery, 2001. ISBN 9780992475307.
  22. ^ Michael, Linda (1994). Tyerabarrbowaryaou II: I Shall Never Become a White Man. Sydney: Museum of Contemporary Art. ISBN 9781875632220.
  23. ^ 8
  24. ^ 8
  25. ^ Bowdler, Cath (2009). "'Isn't Someone in Charge out There?': The History of Art Production at Ngukurr". Colour Country: Art from Roper River. Wagga Wagga Art Gallery. ISBN 978-1-875247-99-8.
  26. ^ "Ginger Riley: The Boss of Colour". Castlemaine Art Museum. Retrieved 22 April 2024.

Further reading edit

External links edit


 

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