28th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award 2011 (NATSIAA)

One of my favourite events on the annual art calendar, the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, abbreviated to the NATSIAAs or the Telstras for those in the industry, is an unusual and special event, occasionally punctuated by scandal, controversy, or, more disappointingly, sometimes fairly mundane winning works.
Once the domain of the indigenous artists themselves, the brainchild of former Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory Indigenous art curator Margie West, the Awards were the first event of their kind. They were of the people, for the people.

TELSTRA AWARD $40,000Dickie Minyintiri, Kanyalakutjina (Euro tracks), Synthetic polymer paint on canvas

In later years, the NATSIAA co-incided with the Darwin Festival. Visual art by day flowed into nights of dancing to the wonderful Letterstick Band and Saltwater Band on Darwin’s great Esplanade. It was one of the few times in my life when I have been swept up by masses of joyous, dancing Indigenous bodies, each one singing along to every word of the songs. Years before any of my friends in the south had heard of ‘the blind Aboriginal singer’ (the now-famous Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, of Saltwater Band), I watched him and his band mates sing and dance in Darwin and felt a kind of unique ecstasy. What we never realise at the time is how lucky we are; for these moments are fleeting. I thought this would last. The Darwin Festival opening Santos Concert is no longer held on the Esplanade; I was there the year there was a tragedy, perhaps inevitable with an event held close to a cliff face, and the singing and dancing suddenly turned into anger and disappointment as the concert abruptly ended, and when seconds ago I was swept up in joy, now I was being swept up into an almost riot, with policemen, steadfastly ignoring one man’s cries of ‘don’t worry about him, he’ll still be dead tomorrow. We’ll sing for him tomorrow, tonight, we are alive, and we need music!’, swooping on Festival goers and putting them into the back of paddy wagons, to disperse the crowd before things turned too ugly. (Sadly, nothing exists on YouTube of this time, the closest is a 2007 performance of Saltwater Band at the Telstra Art Award).

These days, the Santos Concert is held in the fort-like concrete Amphitheatre in the beautiful Botanic Gardens. And the Telstras have become increasingly slick. This year they have been reduced to a clean selection of just 63 works, displayed in one floor area of MAGNT, rather than the usual two. This decision, says new MAGNT Director Pierre Arpin, was to not give the impression that any of the art is more or less significant. Just to be selected into the Telstras is an important recognition of an artist’s career, and much griping has gone on about the selection process, favouring as it does the government-funded art centres and those private galleries deemed to be ‘acceptable’. This year, for example, there is little work from such ‘outsider’ art communities, such as Utopia.

This year, under the helm of new curator Dr. Christiane Keller, with a selection and judging panel that included NGV‘s Judith Ryan, artist and professor, and previous Telstra Award winner, Danie Mellor, and indigenous artist and curator at AGSA Nici Cumpston, the NATSIAAs are slicker than ever.

The first thing one notices is a strong return to painting and sculpture, the two foundations of Indigenous art, and a break in the trend of new media, photography and more cutting-edge work by artists living in or near cities, which has been a growing trend in the Telstras for the last few years. Perhaps sensing the lack of this work, MAGNT are holding film screenings of Indigenous new media works this weekend.

GENERAL PAINTING $4,000Bobby West Tjupurrula, Untitled, Synthetic polymer paint on linen

There are only two new media works in the exhibition itself, and the contemporary younger artists are thin on the ground this year. Notable was a work by Kamilaroi artist Archie Moore, whose entry is one of the tiniest, most powerful artworks I have ever encountered, a beautifully made tiny Bible opened to a Church growing from its centre, titled On a mission from God, measuring a mere 3.5 x 3.5 x 4 cm. It somehow manages to be both chilling and beautiful, a reminder of some of the blatantly brutal events of colonisation. A painting by the talented Nyoongar artist Christopher Pease, entitled Bling, is a brief reminder of the Telstras of the previous years. A pixellated image of a ‘strong individual who wears a breast plate’, it maintains the emphasis on the important questions about identity and colonisation. The only film is not from Melbourne or Sydney, but is by David Lans, a Kukatja artist from Balgo, created as part of the Motika project by Warlayirti Artists.

But it is the paintings that really dominate this year’s awards. I revelled in the sublime canvases of colour from the now powerhouse APY Lands communities of Ernabella, Amata and Nyapari in particular (with no sign of the major new APY art centre Mimili Maku or of Kaltjiti, Papulankutja or Warburton art centres), as well as the consistently sophisticated work from Balgo. The stand-out paintings were by Tjala Arts’ Alison Riley, Tiger Palpatja and Hector Burton, and the overall Telstra Award winner from Ernabella Arts, the brilliant and unique painter, 96 year old Dickie Minyintiri. These were joined by Warakurna Artist’s Carol Golding and Tjaparti Bates, Tjunga Palya’s Ginger Wikilyiri, Maringka Baker, the Ernabella elder, more recently working through Ninuku Arts, Harry Tjutjana, and Warlayirti Artists Nora Wompi and Eubena Nampitjin, whose works were all impossible to fault.

BARK $4,000Raelene Kerinauia, Kayimwagakimi Jilamara, Natural pigments on bark

I was pleased to see that this year also features an extraordinary large number of stunning bark paintings, that originally famous and foundational medium of Australian art.

Buku-Larnggay Mulka Centre’s Gunybi Ganambarr, Nyapanyapa Yunupingu and Yumutjin Wunungmurra, Maningrida’s Ivan Namirrki, James Iyuna, Paul Nabulumo Namarinjimak, and Susan Marawarr,

Elcho Island’s Peter Datjing, the Bark Painting Award winner, Jilamara’s Raelene Kerinauia, and Injalak’s Glen Namundja: all of these were absolutely stunning examples of the best artists working at the highest proficiency in bark painting today. The use of the texture of the bark, worked to supurb effect by Kerinauia, the capacity to produce brilliant shimmer, particularly notable in the work of Ganumbarr and the fineness of the rarrk: few barks in this award can be faulted.

NEW MEDIA CATEGORY $4,000Ricardo Idagi, Upi mop le – Tail end man, Mixed media

The curator has obviously thought carefully about the hang of the show: she has combined these barks with stunning sculpture and three-dimensional works: Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts’ Lucy Malirrimurruwuy Wanapuyngu’s delicate  Pandanus fibre, feather and string yams, Maningrida’s Lena Yarinkura’s delightful woven woman with dilly bag and Crusoe Kurddal’s distinctive white Mimih Spirit, 3D Wandjuk Marika Award winner, Elcho Island’s Gali Yalkarriwuy Gurruwiwi’s Baumbirr (Morning Star Pole), Tasmanian artist Vicki West’s intriguing Lura creature woven from kelp, New Media Award winner Ricardo Idagi’s masterful depiction of a story related to Eddie Mabo, Tail End Man, and Utopia artist Dinni Kunoth Kemarre’s clever and playful chess set.

Alongside these were impressive paintings by senior artists such as Tiwi’s Jean Baptiste Apuatimi and Timothy Cook and General Painting Award winner, Papunya Tula Artists’ Bobby West Tjupurrula. Plus quirky paintings by Iwantja’s Sadie Singer, Borroloola’s Thelma Dixon, and Tangentyere Artists’ Margaret Boko.

WORK ON PAPER CATEGORY $4,000Dennis Nona, Zuga Zug, Etching on paper

The sublime works on paper by Cairns-based, Torres Strait Islander artist Brian Robinson and Yirrkala’s Wukun Wanambi were more impressive than the work on paper (although he is a master printmaker) that won in that category, now 3 time MAGNT award winner Torres Strait Islander artist Dennis Nona.

Usually, with this award, the works I am disappointed in are those by artists of whom I have seen better work elsewhere. In this award, I can say that I only found disappointing the work by a handful, such as Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, who can be a transcendent painter at times, as can Regina Wilson, but not in her lolly-pink work here. Molly Napurrula Tasman, as much as I am thrilled with the re-emergence of her troubled Lajamanu Art Centre, failed to excite. The lack of Kimberley works was also of concern: a single, rather mediocre canvas by the usually highly sophisticated and impressive Warmun Art Centre’s Patrick Mung Mung , and a work from Waringarri by Mercy Paymurra Fredericks their only representation.

As I left the Award, satisfied that these painters and sculptors were getting their due recognition, I passed a lovely work by the Pintupi op art master, George Tjungurrayi. For many years, George and his colleague Ronnie Tjampitjinpa have had their works hung in this award; neither has ever won it (although Ronnie’s younger brother Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa won it in 2000, and their art centre, Papunya Tula Artists, has had others such as Makinti Napanangka win). The closest he has got is in 2010 when he received a Highly Commended at the Telstra. The Pintupi dominance in painting has now had to make room for the extraordinary painters of The Lands to their south. With the award being won by an artist from the APY Lands for the second year in the row, these artists’ chance to win this award may be over. The Telstras are reflecting the now leading position of the APY Lands painters, who ironically, for many decades did not produce works on canvas. Yet, as art lovers, their addition to a field already full to bursting with masterful painters is most welcome.