Description
- Size: Cushion cover: 40 x 40 cm (16 x 16 inches)
- Fabric: Cotton drill (front) and cotton (back)
- Colour: The base cloth is grey and the inks are brown and grey
- Invisible zip
Design: Gunyunmirringa (Minytji Landscape)
About the artist:
Gudthaykudthay through his patriline, is Liyagalawumirr tribe/language group. These are the “people with bark over their heads”, as their name translates; they are forest dwellers.
Gunyunmirringa, Gudthyakudthay’s principal totemic site, is a small flat eucalyptus forest, situated about ten kilometres west of the Woolen River and fourteen km south of the Hutchinson Strait. It is Gudthaykudthay’s depiction of this site, which first brought him to the attention of the art world in the early 1980s, and this fine line rarrk (cross-hatching) has become a style for which he is renown.
Before painting, Gudthaykudthay worked as a stockman, truck driver, fencer, and crocodile hunter selling crocodile skins to the Milingimbi Mission. Gudthaykudthay learnt the skills of painting in the 1960s, at the Nangalala Mission on the Glyde River, under the instruction of his half-brother Mirritja. Gudthaykudthay soon developed an individual style consisting of abstract landscape designs, which were exhibited as fine art, devoid of ethnographical details in their exhibition (Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney, 1983).
Gudthaykudthay’s first recorded exhibition, Traditions and Innovations, was held in 1979 at the Legislative Assembly in Darwin. It was not till 1983 that Gudthaykudthay had his first solo exhibition, held at the Garry Anderson Gallery, Sydney. This exhibition consisted of bark paintings, featuring abstract landscape designs and clan patterns. The National Gallery of Australia acquired two of these bark paintings.
In 2005, Gudthaykudthay made his big screen debut as The Sorcerer in the landmark Australian film Ten Canoes, directed by Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr. The film received accolades and aided in educating the world about Yolngu culture in Ramingining, Central Arnhem Land and beyond.
Gudthaykudthay has experienced great success both nationally and internationally, with seven individual solo shows (the most recent in 2021), and over 50 group exhibitions. Gudthaykudthay’s artwork continues to be sought after by private and public collectors.
Philip lived into his 90s and passed away in October 2022.
Philip is a member of Bula’bula Arts in Ramingining in Central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia
Made from fabric hand screen printed in Australia by Publisher Textiles, Sydney.
Cushion made by Mrs Pichreay as a fair trade project in Cambodia by Flying Fox Fabrics.
The artist’s family is paid royalties for every metre printed.
