GUNYBI GANAMBARR, Buyku, 2011, ochre on incised laminate, 91 × 181 cm. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography. Courtesy the artist; Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan-Levi Gift

Mimi Wong

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Australia USA

The ceremony began with the hitting of rocks, which echoed throughout the hushed gallery inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Making her way around the circle of museum staff attending the informal opening of “On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan-Levi Gift,” Samoan artist Rosanna Raymond rubbed together two stones she had gathered from nearby Central Park earlier that morning. The ritual served as an implicit reminder of our connection to the earth, which the museum’s first-ever indigenous curator Maia Nuku then re-emphasized with her remarks: “We pay our respects to the original custodians of this land, the Lenape peoples of the Delaware nation [. . .] whose country, whose land we stand on here today.”

The group show “On Country” featured five leading Australian Aboriginal contemporary artists, whose six works capture a period between the late 1990s and early 2000s. “These paintings represent a moment in history that didn’t always look like this,” said Fred R. Myers, a professor of indigenous studies at New York University, who added that the era also saw a rise in Aboriginal women artists. The only painting by a male artist, Gunybi Ganambarr’s Buyku (2011) features intricate geometric shapes symbolizing water and land, which are painted in ochre on laminate board—a departure from traditionally used organic materials such as bark. Offering a historical glance back to this more customary type of craftwork, three pearl shell pendants engraved with interlocking zigzag designs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have been included in a glass case at the center of the room.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that Aboriginal collectives began painting on two-dimensional surfaces. One of the firsts was the Papunya collective, to which Doreen Reid Nakamarra belonged. Marrapinti (2009) refers to a rock hole that serves as a vital water source where ancestral women would travel to, and her work transposes the journey from a passed-down narrative to the canvas. The exhibition continually underlined the relationships of individual artists to these inherited stories, which are tied directly to the land.

DOREEN REID NAKAMARRA, Marrapinti, 2008, acrylic on canvas, 122 × 153 cm. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography. Courtesy the artist; Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi; Artists Rights Society, New York; Viscopy, Australia; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

KATHLEEN PETYARRE, Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming-Sandhill Country (After Hailstorm), 2000, acrylic on canvas, 182 × 182 cm. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography. Courtesy the artist; Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi; Artists Rights Society, New York; Viscopy, Australia; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

KATHLEEN PETYARRE, Sandhills in Atnangkere Country, 1999, acrylic on canvas, 122 × 122 cm. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography. Courtesy the artist; Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi; Artists Rights Society, New York; Viscopy, Australia; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

As the practice of painting on canvas spread to other communities, each developed its distinctive style dictated by their remote landscapes. The desert, for instance, is clearly tangible in Kathleen Petyarre’s two paintings. One can observe the fine dust and shimmering grains in Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming – Sandhill Country (After Hailstorm) (2000), as well as the burnt orange dirt in Sandhills in Atnangkere Country (1999). In Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa (2002) by another desert artist, Dorothy Napangardi, each tiny dab of white and brown paint evokes the pebbles and soil in a seemingly endless stretch of land. Taking a step back reveals something like an aerial view, while the lack of rigidity in the placement of dots simulates an ebb and flow found in rocky topography. If it seems like the canvases should be spread on the floor because of how closely they mimic naturally occurring patterns, it’s because they are often produced in that manner as part of a communal ritual.

DOROTHY NAPANGARDI, Karntakurlangu Jukurrpa, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 168 × 244 cm. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography. Courtesy the artist; Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi; Artists Rights Society, New York; Viscopy, Australia; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

ABIE LOY KEMARRE, Bush Hen Dreaming – Bush Leaves, 2003, acrylic on canvas, 182 × 182 cm. Photo by Spike Mafford Photography. Courtesy the artist; Robert Kaplan and Margaret Levi; Artists Rights Society, New York; Viscopy, Australia; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Although the incorporation of historical motifs has precedent, the artists’ execution of what Myers calls a “moment of abstraction” showcases their inventiveness. Rather than assume a literal approach in retelling the story that inspired Bush Hen Dreaming – Bush Leaves (2003), Abie Loy Kemarre opts to extrapolate patterns of leaves to symbolize “the complex knowledge of bush medicine” inherent in the story’s theme. As demonstrated by the sophisticated implementation of color and tessellation visible upon closer inspection, the work ultimately dispels its deceptively simplistic appearance.

In the same way, “On Country” sought to undo preconceptions of Aboriginal art and promote a newfound appreciation for this ongoing contemporary art movement. While artifacts like the engraved pearl shell pendants might previously have been displayed as anthropological objects in a natural history museum, the paintings by these five contemporary artists refuse to be seen as stagnant. At the same time, the artists’ bond to country remains ever-present.

“On Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan-Levi Gift” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, until December 17, 2017.

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