Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala
Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala presents a watershed moment in global art history, sharing with the American public a history of Aboriginal Australian bark painting curated and narrated by the Yolŋu people inhabiting northeastern Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. For millennia, Yolŋu have painted their sacred clan designs on their bodies and ceremonial objects. These designs—called miny’tji—are not merely decorative: they are the patterns of the ancestral land itself. Yolŋu people describe them as maḏayin: a term that encompasses both the sacred and the beautiful. In the early twentieth century, they turned to the medium of painting on eucalyptus bark, creating shimmering designs using ochre colors with fine brushes made of human hair, for trade, to share their identities, and as acts of diplomacy. Expressing the power and beauty of their culture, these artists continue to find new and innovative ways to transform their ancient clan designs into compelling contemporary statements.
Led by Yolŋu knowledge holders and their world views, Maḏayin offers a rare opportunity for American audiences to experience an evocative and enduring artistic movement, with parallels to modes of abstraction in other movements within modern and contemporary art history.
Maḏayin: Eight Decades of Aboriginal Australian Bark Painting from Yirrkala was organized by the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia in partnership with the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Centre in Australia. The exhibition’s presentation culminates in New York at Asia Society, which has been instrumental in the advancement of this art since organizing the 1988 presentation Dreamings: The Art of Aboriginal Australia, one of the first in-depth exhibitions of its kind in the United States.
Drawn from the world’s most important holdings of Aboriginal bark paintings, including the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, the University of Melbourne, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and the National Gallery of Australia, Maḏayin encompasses eight decades of artistic production at Yirrkala, from 1935 to the present, including 33 new works commissioned especially for the exhibition through the Buku-Larrŋgay Mulka Art Centre.
Pictured above: Yäma Munuŋgirritj, born ca. 1920–1987, Yarrwiḏi-Gumatj clan. Gurruŋawuy, 1961. Natural pigments on bark. H. 28 x W. 15 in. (71.1 x 38.1 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia. Edward L. Ruhe Collection, Gift of John W. Kluge, 1997. 1993.0004.041.
Woŋgu Munuŋgurr, ca. 1880–1959; Gupa-Djapu' clan
Sacred Miny'tji, 1935
Natural pigments on bark
H. 56 5/8 x W. 23 7/8 in. (143.8 x 60.6 cm)
Donald Thomson Collection, The University of Melbourne
Woŋgu Munuŋgurr, ca. 1880–1959; Gupa-Djapu' clan
Djapu Miny'tji, 1942
Natural pigments on bark
H. 74 1/2 x W. 41 7/16 in. (189.2 x 105.3 cm)
Donald Thomson Collection, The University of Melbourne
Wandjuk Djuwakan Marika, ca. 1927–1987; Rirratjiŋu clan
The birth of the Djang'kawu children at Yalangbara, 1982
Natural pigments on bark
H. 57 7/8 x W. 25 5/8 in. (147 x 65.1 cm)
Museum purchase, 1983, National Gallery of Australia
Ralwurrandji Waṉambi, 1959–2013; Marrakulu clan
Bamurruŋu, 2001
Natural pigments on bark
H. 64 x W. 30 1/2 in. (162.6 x 77.5 cm)
Collection of Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter
Djambawa Marawili AM, Born 1953; Maḏarrpa clan
Americalili Marrtji (Journey to America), 2019
Natural pigments on bark
H. 106 5/16 x W. 39 3/8 in. (270 x 100 cm)
Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia.
The 2017–2019 Kluge- Ruhe Madayin Commission.
Museum purchase with funds provided by
Geoffrey and Virginia Hassell, 2020, 2020.0001.001