MINNIE PWERLE - AWELYE ATNWENGERRP

 MINNIE PWERLE
AWELYE ATNWENGERRP,  2005
123 x 90 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Utopia, NT
Dacou Gallery, NT Cat No. 06217Private Collection, NSWPrivate Collection, New ZealandCooee Art, NSWaccompanied by a Dacou Gallery certificate of authenticity 
 
STORY
Minnie Pwerle, whose husband was the brother of famed artist Emily Kngwarreye, began painting her country Atnwengerrp and its associated Dreamings in earnest at 77 years of age. While Minnie resembles Emily in her prodigious output and gestural vigour, it is the bush melon and its seed, rather than the yam, or bush potato, which were her own Dreamings and the subject of her art. The bush melon fruit is collected by women and eaten immediately or cut into pieces, skewered onto pieces of wood, and then dried to be eaten over the coming months when bush tucker is scarce. In this powerful small work by the artist, Awelye Atnwengerrp is represented by powerful lines painted gesturally in startling white, blue and purple without reference to the melon seeds that dominate the majority of her work. The designs painted on the top half of women's bodies during ceremony are boldly depicted and evoke the presence of women dancing by fire light.