Gloria PETYARRE

DOB: C.1942

BORN: MOSQUITO BORE, UTOPIA, NORTHERN TERRITORY

LANGUAGE GROUP : ANMATYERRE

COMMUNITY: UTOPIA, NT

GLORIA PETYARRE, SOMETIMES REFERRED TO AS GLORIA PITJARA, IS ARGUABLY THE MOST FAMOUS AND SIGNIFICANT OF ALL FEMALE AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL ARTISTS LIVING AND WORKING TODAY. SHE IS INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED FOR HER ‘BUSH MEDICINE LEAF’ PAINTINGS.

HER CAREER TOOK OFF WITH GUSTO WHEN SHE WON THE MOST COVETED AUSTRALIAN ANNUAL ‘WYNNE PRIZE FOR LANDSCAPE’ AT THE NEW SOUTH WALES GALLERY IN 1999, FOR WHAT WAS A MOST EXTRAORDINARY PAINTING FOR ITS TIME : A HUGE, GOLD AND GREEN ABSTRACT WORK, MADE UP OF SWIRLING LEAF SHAPED BRUSH STROKES, CLOSE TOGETHER ON A BLACK BACKGROUND AND YET IMPARTING TO THE CANVAS THE ENERGY AND FLOW OF LEAVES BEING SCATTERED BY A FITFUL WIND, SEAWEED SWIRLING IN A CHANGE OF TIDE, OR GRASS BILLOWING IN THE WIND.

THE LEAVES IN THE WINNING PAINTING, BASED ON THOSE OF THE KURRAJONG TREE WHICH IS USED FOR BUSH MEDICINE,
WERE METICULOUSLY PAINTED AND YET THEIR APPARENT FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT GAVE A LIGHTNESS AND LOOSENESS TO THE CREATION. SO MUCH DID THIS ARTWORK FASCINATE THE ESSENTIALLY NATURE-LOVING PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY, THAT IT WAS TO BECOME ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR STYLES IN ABORIGINAL ART, AND IN FACT BECAME A STYLE THAT BROUGHT MANY A DEVOTEE TO THE GENRE BECAUSE OF ITS RESONANCE WITH THE VIEWER.

AND WITH HER WIN CAME A TRIUMPH FOR ABORIGINAL ART : GLORIA PETYARRE BECAME THE FIRST INDIGENOUS AUSTRALIAN ARTIST EVER TO WIN A MAJOR ART PRIZE AT THE GALLERY OF NEW SOUTH WALES.

YEARS LATER, GLORIA STILL PAINTS HER MEDICINE LEAF PAINTINGS, AND IS NOW FOLLOWED IN DOING SO BY SEVERAL GENERATIONS OF HER FAMILY MEMBERS. HOWEVER, GLORIA WAS AND IS CREDITED WITH BEING THE CREATOR OF THIS POPULAR STYLE, IS REGARDED AS THE MOST COLLECTIBLE OF ITS PROPONENTS, AND HAS HAD A STRONG FOUNDATION ON WHICH TO BUILD HER CAREER.

GLORIA’S ORIGINS ARE IN A REGION CALLED UTOPIA, COVERING AN AREA APPROXIMATELY 230 – 300KM FROM ALICE SPRINGS, ITSELF A REMOTE TOWN TO MANY PEOPLE. UTOPIA TAKES ‘REMOTE’ TO AN ENTIRELY NEW LEVEL, BEING STILL WITHOUT A TOWNSHIP IN 2012, WITHOUT THE USUAL RESOURCES AND

REACHABLE ONLY BY A DIRT ROAD (AS LONG AS RAINS DO NOT BLOCK IT ENTIRELY).

MANY OF AUSTRALIA’S FOREMOST INDIGENOUS ARTIS TS SPRING FROM THIS AREA, INCLUDING GLORIA’S RENOWNED AUNT, EMILY KAME KNGWARREYE (DECEASED SINCE 2006, AND THE MOST FAMOUS AND ACCOMPLISHED FEMALE INDIGENOUS
ARTIST AUSTRALIA HAS PRODUCED.

GLORIA, HER FAMILY MEMBERS AND HER SKIN FAMILY, FIRST BECAME INTERESTED IN ART MAKING BY PARTICIPATING IN THE UTOPIA WOMEN’S SILK BATIK GROUP INTRODUCED IN 1977 AND INITIATED BY CAAMA (THE CENTRAL AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINAL MEDIA ASSOCIATION). BOTH GLORIA AND EMILY KNGWARREYE WERE FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE GROUP.

WITH UP TO 80 MEMBERS AT A TIME, THE BATIK AND TIE-DIE PROJECT BECAME THE SEEDING INSPIRATION FOR THE ARTISTS, AND ITS TREMENDOUS SUCCESS BOTH IN AUSTRALIA AND OVERSEAS LED TO ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL PROJECT INTRODUCED IN 1988, AGAIN BY CAAMA.

THIS TIME, THE ARTISTS WERE TO PAINT ON PRIMED, STRETCHED CANVAS, AND MANY OF THE WOMEN TOOK TO THE NEW MEDIUM WITH EASE AND ENTHUSIASM, FINDING IT MORE EXCITING TO WORK WITH THAN THE SILK AND BATIK TECHNIQUES THEY HAD HITHERTO USED.

THE RESULTING WORKS WERE EXHIBITED AT THE S.H.ERWIN GALLERY IN SYDNEY AND SEVERAL OTHER NOTABLE GALLERIES ACROSS AUSTRALIA. IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE UTOPIAN ART MOVEMENT, AND IT WAS IMPRESSIVE ENOUGH TO GAIN INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION. GLORIA PETYARRE WAS ONE OF THE ARTISTS AT THE VERY CENTRE OF IT.

AS DEMAND FOR UTOPIAN ART GREW, SO DID GLORIA’S CAREER. SHE TRAVELLED WITH HER ART TO MANY COUNTRIES AND EXHIBITED IN FRANCE, GERMANY, THE UNITED KINGDOM, BELGIUM, THE NETHERLANDS, ITALY, THE USA AND JAPAN, AND OF COURSE IN REGIONAL AND COMMERCIAL GALLERIES THROUGHOUT AUSTRALIA.

IT WOULD BE EASY TO THINK THAT GLORIA PETYARRE’S WORKS ARE LIMITED TO BUSH MEDICINE LEAF WORKS, BUT IN FACT SHE HAS QUITE A NUMBER OF DREAMINGS IN HER PORTFOLIO: SHE PAINTS THE ‘THORNY MOUNTAIN DEVIL LIZARD DREAMING’, A PATTERN OF SWIRLING COLOURED LINES WHICH IMITATE THE TRACKS MADE IN THE SAND BY THE LIZARD’S TAIL; THE YAM
DREAMING, POPULARLY EXECUTED BY HER AUNT EMILY KNGWARREYE, IS ALSO ONE OF GLORIA’S COMMONLY PAINTED STORIES. SHE ALSO PAINTS GRASS SEED,

PENCIL YAM, EMU, BEAN, SMALL BROWN GRASS AND BODY PAINT DREAMINGS, AND THIS BREADTH OF SUBJECT MATTER
AND STYLE HAS MADE HER AN EXTREMELY VERSATILE ARTIST.

NOW IN HER LATE 60S, GLORIA CONTINUES TO PAINT. IN RECENT YEARS, SHE HAS DEPARTED AT TIMES FROM HER FINER
MEDICINE LEAF WORKS, TO PAINT HER MASSIVE ‘BIG LEAF’ PAINTINGS, EXPRESSIONISTICALLY RENDERED WITH GIANT BRUSH STROKES THAT MIX COLOUR ON THE CANVAS TO GAIN A VARIETY OF FASCINATING PAINT EFFECTS. THE SMILE ON HER FACE WHILE SHE PAINTS THESE WORKS REVEALS HER DELIGHT IN HAVING A BREAK FROM THE FINER STYLES THAT HAD OCCUPIED HER PREVIOUSLY.

GLORIA PETYARRE IS A MULTI-AWARD WINNING ARTIST AND A HIGHLY COLLECTIBLE ONE. HER INVOLVEMENT IN THE FOUNDING PROJECTS OF THE UTOPIAN ART MOVEMENT, AND HER STATUS IN THE GROUP HAVE GIVEN HER A PLACE IN AUSTRALIAN ART HISTORY – AS WELL AS A SIGNIFICANT BODY OF WORK. APART FROM WINNING THE AGNSW WYNNE PRIZE IN 1999, GLORIA WENT ON TO BE A FINALIST ANOTHER FOUR TIMES. THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS INDIGENOUS ART COMPETITION IN THIS COUNTRY, THE ‘TELSTRA NATIONAL ABORIGINAL AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER ART AWARD’ HAS FEATURED HER ARTWORKS ON MANY OCCASIONS, AND HER WORKS ARE WIDELY COLLECTED AND COMMONLY HELD IN THE FINEST ABORIGINAL ART COLLECTIONS AND MUSEUMS WORLDWIDE.