Ancestral power and the aesthetic

Arnhem Land works from the Donald Thomson Collection

Ian Potter Museum of Art

http://www.art-museum.unimelb.edu.au
Saturday 30 May 2009 to Sunday 23 August 2009
Exhibition previously on at Ian Potter Museum of Art in Flinders Lane precinct, Victoria, Australia
This powerful visual suite embodies the essence of many of the major ancestors who created the landscape and gave life and meaning to the people of Arnhem Land, such as the Wagilag Sisters and the Djankawu Sisters.

This exhibition will present bark paintings and other painted objects collected in eastern Arnhem Land by anthropologist, the late Professor Donald Thomson (1901–1970). The exhibition features around a third of an extraordinary collection of some seventy bark paintings in the Donald Thomson Collection.

Location

Ian Potter Museum of Art
The University of Melbourne, Swanston Street
Melbourne Precinct
Victoria
Australia
Aboriginal bark painting
Mundukul
© All rights reserved Marrirra Marawili 2008 Australia
Madarrpa clan, Eastern Arnhem Land, Northern Territory Yirwarra (ancestral fish trap) 1942 natural pigments on bark. 177 x 100 cm The Donald Thomson Collection. The University of Melbourne and Museum Victoria