The Dealer is the Devil

by Adrian Newstead

  16 T. Ingram, ‘Cook portrait on convoluted voyage’, Australian Financial Review, 12 August 1993.

  17 S. Huda, Pedigree and Panache: A History of the Art Auction in Australia, p. 112

  18 As recorded on the saleroom notice.

  19 Men’s ceremonial boards, for instance, regularly appear for sale with a hole at one end, implying that they are bull roarers, and consequently of only secular interest.

  20 Other prominent town artists at the time were Young Timothy Dempsey, Rex Granites, Rosie Flemming, Janet Forrester, Bessie Liddle and Maureen Turner.

  21 Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards.

  22 Later renamed the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award and, after Telstra became the chief sponsor, it was branded as the Telstra award.

  23 F. Myers, Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art, p. 304.

  24 There was some competition between the men from Yuendumu and those from Lajamanu over who made the best and most authentic ground sculpture. The installation made for Magiciens de la Terre was constructed using a type of ‘cement’. It was accompanied by little explanation and prompted plenty of controversy. The earlier installation at the Musée d’Art Moderne in 1983 was made using a tonne of coloured sand and feather down. It was extremely well documented and had huge press coverage as well as being documented in Peter Brook’s theatre brochure (Bouffes du Nord). According to French anthropologist Barbara Glowczewski, this 1983 event was the real entry of Aboriginal art onto the French contemporary art scene.

  25 Community Development and Employment Program, often characterised as a ‘work for the dole’ scheme that is used in Aboriginal communities in the absence of ‘real’ jobs.

  26 A.M. Brody (ed.), Stories: Eleven Aboriginal Artists, Works from the Holmes à Court Collection.

  27 A.M. Brody, Utopia: A Picture Story, 88 Silk Batiks from the Holmes à Court Collection, in association with Rodney Gooch, CAAMA Shop and the Utopia Artists.

  28 Linguistic convention has changed several times during the last 20 years. Skin names like Ngal have been variously written as Ngal or Ngale, depending on clan affilliaton, as have Petyarr(e), Kngwarr(e), Kam(e) and various others.

  29 A. Hoy, ‘Desert Vision,’ The Bulletin, 18 April 2001, p. 18.

  30 Also referred to as an ATCO, after the Canadian company that supplies modular buildings to remote communities.

  31 A white paint mixture consisting of a binder mixed with chalk, gypsum and/or pigment, which is used as a base for paint and other materials that are applied over it.

  32 Chromacryl student paint.

  33 C. Watson, ‘Touching the land: Towards an Aesthetic of Balgo Contemporary Painting’ in H Morphy and M Smith Boles (eds), Art from the Land: Dialogues with the Kluge–Ruhe Collection of Australian Aboriginal Art, p. 171.

  34 C. Watson, ‘Eubena Nampitjin and Wimmitji Tjapangarti’, in A.M. Brody (ed.), Stories: Eleven Aboriginal Artists, Works from the Holmes à Court Collection, p. 52.

  35 Her Master’s degree resulted in the excellent book on Kutjungka women’s aesthetics and ceremony, C. Watson, Piercing the Ground: Balgo Women’s Art and Relationship to Country.

  36 Other artists of renown were Dominic Martin Tjupurrula, Michael Mutji, Tjumpo Tjapanangka, David Hall, Richard Tax, Fred Tjakamarra and Johnny Gordon Downs. Pintupi artists Brandy Tjungurrayi and Patrick Olodoodi Tjungurrayi began painting for Warlayirti Artists, while Alan Winderoo Tjakamarra and Patricia Lee Napangarti were Warlpiri who maintained their links with family in Yuendumu and Lajamanu.

  37 At its peak of production in 2008, 1,550 works were created annually. By 2010, it had fallen to 700 as a direct result of the art centre’s GFC management strategy.

  38 Of these, 38 were created in 1988–1989; 14 in 1990–1991; 9 in 1992–93; and 1 in 1994–1995.

  39 His wife, Eubena Nampitjin, was also an informant to Ronald and Catherine Berndt during their research for the book, The Speaking Land: Myth and Story in Aboriginal Australia, Inner Traditions/Bear, 1994.

  40 C. Watson, ‘Eubena Nampitjin and Wimmitji Tjapangarti’ in A.M. Brody (ed.), Stories: Eleven Aboriginal Artists, Works from the Holmes à Court Collection, p. 49.

  41 J. Cowan, Wirrimanu: Aboriginal Art from the Balgo Hills, Gordon and Breach Arts International, Sydney, 1993.

  42 P. Counsel, ‘Desert Designs’, ArtLink, vol. 17, no.1, Autumn 1997, pp. 54–6.

  43 D. Kentish, Jesus Country in Mount Gambier: The Southern Explorations of David Downs.

  44 Lance Bennett, the son of Dorothy Bennett, ran the Aboriginal Cultural Foundation on behalf of an executive committee made up of 20 senior law men and law women drawn from the Tiwi Islands, the Kimberley, Port Keats, Victoria River Downs, Arnhem Land, the Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape York. Its charter was to assist Aboriginal communities to revive their cultural activities and maintain their art and culture with their religious functions intact. During the 1980s and 1990s, the foundation organised the participation of Aboriginal cultural custodians in major national and international events, including Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre George Pompidou, Paris, and Dreamings: Art of Aboriginal Australia at the Asia Society in New York, as well as facilitating cultural gatherings between communities.

  45 Michael O’Ferrall, ‘Aboriginal Artists in the Kimberley: New Developments from the 1980s’, in S. Kleinert and M. Neale (eds), Oxford Companion to Aborigianl Art and Culture, p. 231.

  46 As related during personal conversation between Mary Macha and the author in 2004.

  47 In the ensuing years he published a number of books, including Kardu Thipmam: Black People, The First of the Australians and From the Ochres of Mungo.

  48 Of uncertain date but including 1984, from various locations.

  49 Neil McLeod, Field Notes.

  50 McLeod’s diary entries indicate that he made 38 visits to the Kimberley between 1976 and 2009, and 24 to Arnhem Land dating from his first in 1975. On his third trip to the Kimberley at the beginning of the 1980s McLeod asked the Aboriginal elders if they would re-enact old ceremonies so that he could photograph and record them. In addition, between 1976 and 2009 Kimberley artists stayed with him at his home in Melbourne on no fewer than 14 occasions. [Dindy Vaughan BA (Hons) MA, taken from McLeod’s diary entries].

  51 Later Executive Director of the Artist’s Foundation of WA (1991–2003) and now Manager of Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre.

  52 Following media speculation during 2007–2009 in regard to the safe provenance of works collected by Neil McLeod, his extensive archives were examined and interviews conducted with oral historian Dindy Vaughan BA (Hons) MA. Vaughan has established that McLeod met Rover Thomas in the company of Paddy Jaminji and others during his first trip to the Kimberley, during or immediately prior to 1975. These records explain clearly how Rover’s early collaboration with his countrymen could have been executed as early as 1978. The material examined includes photographic records of McLeod working with the people at Old Mowanjum in 1977, as well as images of many of the people painting, including Paddy Djamindji (Jaminji). During his field trip in 1982 McLeod collected boards painted by Rover Thomas that were ‘stored under Thomas’s bed’ (diary note).

  53 Personally examined by the author at the time, it was offered for sale through Lawson~Menzies in 2007.

  54 For example, Jimmy Wululu, Jack Wunuwun and Djardi Ashley.

  55 Too Many Captain Cooks (1988) written and directed by Penny McDonald.

  56 During his photographic career McLeod has achieved the following distinctions amongst a great number of others: He has been Honorary Photographer for the Royal Melbourne Zoo, the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary and the RSPCA, Melbourne, Victoria. In 1978 he attained the International World Wildlife Magazine’s Photographer of the Year Award (personally presented by Sir Peter Scott). In 1997 he was the recipient of the USA International Oceanic Society’s First International Award for his photographic documentation of traditional ceremonies in New Ireland, Pa
pua New Guinea, for Preservation of Culture and Lifestyle of People of the Tabar Islands. Over more than 30 years he has amassed an extensive library of photographs, tapes, videotapes, films and DVDs recording individual lives and community cultural practices, lost since elders have passed away but preserved for posterity through his work. As he did so, he developed valuable collections of art and artefacts such as the La Sisi Canoe, New Ireland (part of the project which won the International Oceanic Society Award, 1997), now housed in the Museum of South Australia, and The Spirit House (Haus Tambaran), Sepik River, Papua New Guinea, donated to the Museum of South Australia, after McLeod was asked to buy it for preservation by the local community and the Papua New Guinea Museum. In addition, McLeod has been the author, part-author, illustrator and publisher of over 50 books, ranging from anthropological art studies and records, through documentation of flora and fauna (much of it breaking new ground), to books on horses in Australia and New Zealand, and children’s books with Australian cultural content. He has produced more than 20 educational kits, including Environmental Caring, Australian Aborigines, Australia’s Wildlife, Australian Wilderness Areas and Art.

  57 Dindy Belinda Vaughan BA (Hons) MA, formerly holder of tertiary lectureships at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and Fitzroy Institute Technology, and now at the Victoria Institute of Technology, and also an academic assessor for journalism at Deakin University.

  58 Kay Goon worked for the National Trust in Darwin and was a history student at the Northern Territory University at the time she conducted the interview with Bennett.

  59 K. Goon, ‘D. Bennett: A Dreaming’, Northern Perspective, vol. 19, no. 1, 1996.

  60 Notaby Thompson Yulidjirri and Bobby, Peter, Robin, Thompson and other members of the Nganjmirra family.

  61 She went on to recall that occasionally these old friends would look at her and say, with patient resignation, ‘But we already told you that story, long time ago’, as recorded in C. Dyer, Kunwinjku Art from Injalak 1991–1992, The John Kluge Commission, p. 29.

  62 These and the following reminiscences have been extracted from McLeod’s extensive field notes and interviews conducted by oral historian Dindy Vaughan. Over a period of 33 years, Neil McLeod kept diary records continuously. From the early years, five of these diaries are missing, having been destroyed in a house fire at 6 Rocksleigh Ave, Tecoma (22 February 2004). Of these five missing diaries, two are recorded in part elsewhere in brief notes taken direct from the diaries (with dates), one is recorded in annotated discursive format, with particulars but not dates, and two seem to be unrecorded in any secondary manner. There are, therefore, 28 fully complete diaries, three partial diary records, and two unavailable. These notes are invaluable, documenting research, recording of cultural stories, practices and history, the collection of art and artefacts, and publications. Analysis of entries provides a rich source of detailed information. In brief, there are 38 recorded visits to the Kimberley, and 14 occasions when Kimberley artists stayed with Neil McLeod at his home; 24 recorded visits to Arnhem Land, and 31 occasions, over a period of 24 years, when Arnhem Land people came to Melbourne to stay with him to paint and record their stories. There is a vast library of photographs, videos, DVDs, slides, cultural notes and letters recording these artists at work; 25 recorded visits to official institutes (such as the Institute of Aboriginal Studies in Canberra), the CSIRO or experts (such as Professor George Chaloupka and Dr Peter Carroll) for the specific purpose of research; 21 visits to other states of Australia (many to South Australia) and 10 occasions when artists from these areas came to stay and work at Neil McLeod’s home in Melbourne; 14 visits to Papua New Guinea, with very detailed notes on art, culture and society, and a large collection of artefacts. To all of this material must be added his published books, copious field notes, statements, and letters from numerous sources regarding all of this work.

  63 Record of interviews with several prominent Darwin gallery owners, dealers and others who worked with Bennett throughout the 1990s and until her death.

  64 Record of interview between the author and Neil McLeod.

  65 The media attack is noted in McLeod’s diary, 13 March 1991, as is the reply of the ten artists (including Lin Onus) who were involved in these projects. A copy of the letter, vigorously protesting against Ryan’s position and arguing that Aboriginal artists had the right to work on whatever material they chose, survived (in part only) the fire at 6 Rocksleigh Avenue on 22 February 2004. Although McLeod was not named directly, Judith Ryan wrote in her 1990 book Spirit in Land: Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land, p. 21: ‘A current matter of concern has been the practice of bringing down artists to southern capital cities for concentrated bursts of painting under the close supervision of agents. One such instance resulted in bark painters being asked to paint on local, improperly-cured stringy-bark. The artists were encouraged to paint on slabs of slate, resulting in pseudo rock art, and a series of works on leather garments was also produced.’ Many inferred from this that McLeod was the target of Ryan’s accusations.

  66 Burnum actively supported the Earth Repair Foundation run by Franklin Scarf and the Earth Repair Charter, .

  67 Sir Douglas Ralph ‘Doug’ Nicholls KCVO OBE.

  68 C. Nicholls, ‘Urban Dingo: Postmodernism without Tears,’ Art and Australia, vol. 38, no. 4, June–August 2001, p. 536.

  69 Onus cited in J. Isaacs, Aboriginality in Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings and Prints, p. 26.

  70 L. Onus, ‘Language and Lasers’, in The Land, the City: the Emergence of Urban Aboriginal Art (Art Monthly Australia supplement), no. 30, May 1990, pp. 14–15, 19.

  71 Nickolls cited in L. Thompson, ‘Dreamtime Meets Machinetime’, The Australian, 24 May 1990.

  72 J. Isaacs, Aboriginality: Contemporary Aboriginal Paintings and Prints, p. 76.

  73 A. Rutherford, Artlink Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, special double issue, 1990, p. 65.

  74 S. Fox, ‘Letter from Arnhem Land where all the Real Art is Supposed to Be’, Artlink, vol. 10, nos 1–2, 1990, pp. 68–9.

  75 P. Sutton, ‘The Sculpted Word: A Reply to Donald Brook on Toas’, Adelaide Review, vol. 32, 1987, pp. 36–7.

  76 F. Myers, Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art, p. 206.

  77 Curated by the anthropology section of the South Australian Museum, it was accompanied by a book edited by Peter Sutton, with authoritative essays by Sutton, Christopher Anderson, Philip Jones and Francoise Dussart.

  78 F. Myers, Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art, p. 277.

  79 K. Larson, ‘Their Brilliant Careers’, New York Magazine, 4 October 1988, pp. 148–50.

  80 Formerly known as Margo Boles.

  81 J. Eccles, Aboriginal Art News, 17 September 2010 .

  82 Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Pty Ltd had become Inada Holdings in 1983 and Aboriginal Arts Australia Limited in 1986. After being taken over by the Aboriginal Development Commission in 1984, it was still heavily subsidised by the Aboriginal Arts Board. Very few of Dr Timothy Pascoe’s 1981 recommendations had been adopted despite his having been appointed General Manager of the Australia Council. There was no increase in support for coordinators, no increased training and no improvement in management and accounting procedures.

  83 Many, including Gavin Andrews, then Director of the Aboriginal Arts Board, viewed this as a veiled attempt to counter those who would promote Australia’s Bicentennial as a year of mourning.

  84 J. Altman, C. McGuigan and P. Yu, The Aboriginal Arts and Crafts Industry, report of the Review Committee, Department of Aboriginal Affairs, July 1989, pp. 252–4.

  85 Amongst the other participants were Jo Holder representing Stephen Mori Gallery, and Tom Spender of Australian Galleries and later Kimberley Art Gallery.

  86 Held each year on Australia Day, 26 January.

  87 Established by the Australia Council, the gallery was run by Cori Fong and managed by Mick Reid, former Tiwi D
esign art coordinator. It opened in time for the 1987 America’s Cup. The building is now the home of Japingka Gallery.

  88 New art centres were established at Uluru in 1982, Ernabella and Alice Springs in 1985, Yuendumu and Lajamanu in 1986, Santa Teresa and Balgo Hills in 1987, and Warburton in 1989. In the Kimberley and the Top End, new art centres and organisations supporting artists were established in Kununurra, Broome, Oenpelli, Yirrkala and on Melville Island.

  89 This is evidenced today by disinterest in resales of artworks by a number of artists who were highly successful at that time. Many have now been relegated in status and consigned to the realm of the repetitious journeyman or producers of high-end tourist works. Included amongst these are a great many Arnhem Land bark painters as well as a large number of artists from Papunya, Mount Allan, Napperby and Haasts Bluff, who were amongst the most prolific producers of desert art at that time.

  90 The Economist, 27 May 1989.

  91 Overseas sales figures included sales to tourists and collectors during visits to Australia, that is, ‘hidden export’.

  92 As referred to by the Australian Treasurer at the time, Paul Keating.

  BOOK 6

  1 J. Isaacs, ‘The public face of Aboriginal art in the 70s and 80s’, Art Monthly Australia, no. 56, 1992, p. 93.

  2 See Australian Indigenous Art Market Top 100 artists, .

  3 Based on interviews with many of those for whom she produced paintings, Emily earned in excess of $500,000 tax free annually between 1994 and her death in 1996. This figure is, however, no more than an estimation on my part.

  4 Even as late as 1994, Albert Namatjira still held 42 of the 50 highest results ever achieved for Aboriginal artworks at auction.

  5 David Cossey’s Gallerie Australis in Adelaide, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, the Hogarth Galleries and later Barry Stern Gallery in Sydney, Judy Behan’s Chapman Gallery in Canberra, Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi and Beverley Knight’s Alcaston House in Melbourne.