Luke Taylor – The Conversation

Large painting of a crocodile attributed to Majumbu along with two child hand stencils. Photograph courtesy of the Melbourne Museum, object 019930, object size 2.94m by 1.03m

February 22, 2023

Returning a name to an artist: the work of Majumbu, a previously unknown Australian painter

Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University; Andrea Jalandoni, Griffith University; Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia; Kenneth Mangiru, Indigenous Knowledge; Luke Taylor, Griffith University, and Sally K. May, University of Adelaide

Majumbu’s work sits in the Melbourne Museum, but until now he has not been named as the artist.

The bark painting depicting a barramundi that Namadbara created for Spencer at Oenpelli in 1912 and that he identified in the interview with Lance Bennett in 1967, now in Museums Victoria Spencer/Cahill Collection (object X 19909).

May 10, 2022

Paddy Compass Namadbara: for the first time, we can name an artist who created bark paintings in Arnhem Land in the 1910s

Joakim Goldhahn, The University of Western Australia; Gabriel Maralngurra; Luke Taylor, Australian National University; Paul S.C.Taçon, Griffith University, and Sally K. May, University of Adelaide

The Spencer/Cahill Collection at Museums Victoria contains approximately 170 bark paintings – and now we can name one of the artists behind them.

One of the works on display at Earth and Sky:John Mawurndjul’s Mardayin ceremony 2000 (detail). Natural pigments on eucalyptus bark, 170 x 78 cm. Don Mitchell Bequest Fund 2000. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. © John Mawurndjul. Tarrawarra Museum of Art

May 5, 2015

Enthusiastic spirit: John Mawurndjul at Tarrawarra

Luke Taylor, Australian National University

Hetti Perkins has curated an exhibition of bark paintings by John Mawurndjul and Gulumbu Yunupingu that is currently on display at Tarrawarra Museum of Art. Who are these artists – and how have their lives shaped their artworks?

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