John Mawurndjul
Formal and contextual analysis of John Mawurndjul’s work as featured in the ‘I am the old and the new’ exhibition online: www.johnmawurndjul.com
Formal Analysis:
A3 Visual journal sketches and notations
What particularly impressed me about John’s works was the sense of rhythm that each piece had. The rarrk painting technique of fine cross-hatching is used in a masterful way of directing the viewer’s gaze around each painting, with moments of jarring juxtapositions that create tension in a collage-like approach of lining up each section of finely painted lines.
Each piece has remarkable unity; there is always beautiful symmetry, and each element is balanced with another element of similar size/colour, or a contrasting element of differing size and tone.
The use of natural materials and pigments give all the works across the years a sense of cohesion and strong sense of connection to country.
Contextual Analysis:
Rarrk is a cross-hatching technique specific to the Aboriginal people of Arnhem Land that was painted onto the body for ceremonies. Layers of colours are used to capture something of nature / the spiritual.
“The lines of the rarrk change direction from one grid shape to the next - they undulate, stop, sheer off – depicting an unstable, moving world, where the bewildered eye wanders before discerning the shapes that lie submerged beneath the surface." (Taylor, 2005)
When Mawurndjul states “I am the old and the new” I believe he means that his practice is very much rooted in traditional ways of painting, yet he has been continually developing his ways of working so that many of his techniques are new.
Mawurndjul’s artworks have shifted over the years from smaller, traditional representative works, to larger works that are more abstracted ideas and concepts. Jon Altman (2009) distinguishes three periods in Mawurndjul’s career, speaking of this progression he said “This was a radical and innovative shift from painting what ancestral beings did to landscapes, sometimes with landscape designs within these beings, to a new experimental form of Kuninjku landscape art that depicts the ancestrally-created landscapes, the sacred places where ancestors reside under the earth.”
Mawurndjul has had an enormous impact on Australian Aboriginal Art through his consistent and dedicated production of art that has been exhibited internationally. He has been recognised as not only an accomplished Aboriginal artist, but as an important Australian artist, winning several national contemporary art awards (Altman,2009).
References:
Altman, J. (2009). John Mawurndjul: Art and Impact. Art Monthly Australia, (226), 22–25. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.703084572289815
Marquis, J, & Wyeld, T. (2009). "Seeing Mardayin': Instability and Ambiguity in the Art of John Mawurndjul, Kuninjku, Arnhem Land, Northern Australia. 2009 13th International Conference Information Visualisation, 539–543. https://doi.org/10.1109/IV.2009.81
Salmon, F. (2018). Kamak!: The mercurial art of John Mawurndjul. Art Monthly Australia, 312, 56–6.
Tekiner. (2006). Formalist Art Criticism and the Politics of Meaning. Social Justice (San Francisco, Calif.), 33(2 (104)), 31–44.
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