Autumn breezes fortified for an abundance of winters to come

 

QAGOMA conservators collaborated with specialist East Asian Art Conservator Jennifer Loubser to assess the conservation repairs necessary to stabilise an unusual 8-panel Japanese folding screen, Scenes from Genji Monogatari to allow its safe handling and display – in assessing the condition of the work when it came into the Collection it was found that hundreds of years of use and display had caused four sets of the delicate paper hinges connecting the three right panels to become weakened and in danger of becoming completely broken and detached.

Behind-the-scenes: Conservation of an 18th Century 8-panel Japanese folding screen

Tosa School, Japan / Eight-fold screen: Scenes from Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) 18th century / Ink and colour on silk on wooden framed screen with four pairs of metal hangers / 83 x 233cm (overall); 83 x 37.5cm (each panel) / Gift of James Fairfax AC through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2018 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art

Paper was an expensive item in Japan during the 18th century.  Among luxuries, paper appears to have been used sparingly in the delicate construction of this folding screen, perhaps to allow for a generous excess of chume sunago (flakes of gold leaf) throughout the painted silk surface, and surrounding kinran (gold thread silk borders). The graceful brush-work of the artist’s hand detailing dainty patterns in layers of the court ladies’ silk kimono garments adds an ornate appeal to this fine example of a koshi-byobu (waist-height folding screen).

This screen has survived in excellent condition for hundreds of years, as the tradition of seasonal displays is still strong in Japan. Rotating artworks provides rest and protection, so they too may live longer lives. Folding screens known as ‘byobu’, are constructed with the intention to provide a delightful continuous scene over a wide area, while creating privacy and shelter from drafts. The panels are connected by hinges made entirely of strong Japanese paper which can last a thousand years when well cared for. Through normal use folding and unfolding, paper hinges see the most wear and tear. These moving parts may need repairs or reconstruction after several hundred years. Displaying byobu standing in an accordion pattern allows them to be free-standing and also protects screens from being overextended. If folding screens are displayed completely flat their hinges can begin to strain and tension may be exerted across the painted surface.

Lifting hinges (Before Conservation)
Repaired hinges (After conservation)
Conservator Jennifer Loubser re-attaching detached kinpaku gold leaf hinge papers

This folding screen was stabilised just in time, before the failing hinges began to cause splits across the paintings. Weakened with use over centuries, hinges had torn apart from the adjacent panels. Gold leaf had delaminated from single-layer paper hinges. It was crucial to support these frail connections with museum quality Japanese handmade paper sub-hinges. Traditional Japanese art conservation methods and materials including plant-based watercolours and pure gold pigments to infill loss areas were used in continuity with the original artist materials. The autumn story depicted in this painting has now been fortified with strength to weather an abundance of seasons ahead.

Detached Hinge (Before Conservation)
Supported Hinge (During Conservation)
Upper Hinge Re-Attached (After Conservation)

Related: A Fleeting Bloom Read about necessary conservation repairs to stabilise works in the exhibition

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This 8-panel folding screen is now standing proudly in the Queensland Art Gallery as part of  ‘A Fleeting Bloom’. The stunning display of antique Japanese artworks in the exhibition are fine examples of delicate artistic rendition and quality materials. I highly recommend seeing these in person if you enjoy spending time with refined details and aesthetics of splendid open spaces.

Jennifer Loubser is an East Asian Art Conservator

Before and After Conservation

Detached Hinge, (Before Conservation)
Supported Hinge (During Conservation)
Lower Hinge Re-Attached (After Conservation)
Reverse hinges, detached (Before conservation)
Reverse hinges re-attached (After Conservation)
Detail of arame sunago, large gold leaf flaked paper
Detached gold leaf hinge (Before conservation)
Detached gold leaf hinge (After conservation)
Detached gold leaf hinge (Before conservation)
Detached gold leaf hinge (After conservation)

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Caring for Japanese folding screens: Free-Sackler Conservators demonstrate Safe Handling for Japanese folding screens

Feature image detail: Tosa School Eight-fold screen: Scenes from Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji) 18th century

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Albert Namatjira, an Australian identity

 

William Dargie’s iconic image of Albert Namatjira has become the most identifiable image of the artist, and Ben Quilty and Vincent Namatjira have each been inspired to incorporate this original into their versions.

Ben Quilty’s painting Albert 2004 features two identifiable Australian identities placed together, Namatjira, the pioneer of contemporary Indigenous Australian art, and the budgerigar, native to Australia, its common name derived from a Gamilaraay Aboriginal language name ‘Betcherrygah’.

By placing these incongruous images side by side, Quilty highlights their usual association. By juxtaposing Namatjra’s portrait with a bird once free, now caged and bred in captivity into a range of uncharacteristic colours and patterns, Quilty considers the idea of Australian identity and its connection to place.

Albert

Ben Quilty, Australia b.1973 / Albert 2004 / Oil on canvas / 135 x 220 cm overall (two panels) / Private collection / © Ben Quilty

From the series Beauty rich and rare, Quilty brings together artists and pet birds into diptychs, such as Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, Tom Roberts and Namatjira. The portrait of Namatjira is borrowed from William Dargie’s Portrait of Albert Namatjira which won the 1956 Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. The painting was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) in 1957, since then, it has become accepted as the iconic image of Australia’s most recognised Indigenous artist.

As the first prominent Aboriginal artist to work in a modern idiom, Namatjira was widely regarded as a representative of assimilation, able to bring traditions together… [Quilty] confronts the question of what constitutes a genuinely Australian Art… Are Namatjira’s works in a Western idiom less authentic than those by the celebrated exponents of Australian nationalism.1

Endnote
1 Michael Desmond, Ben Quilty Live, The University of Queensland Art Museum, 2009, p.82.

Portrait of Albert Namatjira

Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956 is a conventional portrait — a seated half-figure painted from life. In mid-twentieth-century Australia, Indigenous people had rarely figured in a genre that confirmed the status of ‘elder statesman’ upon its subjects. William Dargie’s name was synonymous with the portrayal of ‘captains of industry’, a portrait by Dargie represented the confirmation of great social value and this portrait of Namatjira challenged the attitudes of 1950s Australia.

RELATED: Albert Namatjira

William Dargie, Australia 1912–2003 / Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956 / Oil on canvas / 102.1 x 76.4 cm / Purchased 1957 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © QAGOMA

Albert and Vincent

Albert and Vincent 2014 is the result of Vincent Namatjira’s visit to QAGOMA to view Portrait of Albert Namatjira 1956 by William Dargie. Previously Vincent had seen the work only as a reproduction, and as a portrait painter whose work is often inspired by the image and cultural impact of his grandfather, he had a strong desire to view the work in person. Visiting the Gallery, Vincent sketched the portrait taking his sketches home to finish the work. Albert and Vincent now hangs alongside the painting that inspired it.

RELATED: Albert and Vincent Namatjira

Vincent Namatjira, Western Aranda/Pitjantatjara people b.1983 / Albert and Vincent 2014 / Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 120 x 100cm / Gift of Dirk and Karen Zadra through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2014. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Vincent Namatjira/Licensed by Copyright Agency

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Acknowledgment of Country
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution Indigenous people make to the art and culture of this country.

It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name or reproduce photographs of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

Featured image details by William Dargie, Ben Quilty, and Vincent Namatjira
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Contemporary Patrons travel to the Honolulu Biennial

 

Members of the Gallery’s Contemporary Patrons group travelled to Hawai‘i recently to experience the second iteration of the Honolulu Biennial (HB19), a two-month celebration of contemporary art from Hawaii and the Pacific.

HB19 MAKE WRONG / RIGHT / NOW featured 47 artists and artist collectives from Hawai’i and the countries and continents linked by the Pacific, with its title drawn from the poem Manifesto by participating Native Hawaiian artist Imaikalani Kalahele. The Biennial’s strong commitment and ambition to present and nurture contemporary art and artists in Hawai’i was evident in this second presentation, which extended to multiple venues and sites across the city.

QAGOMA’s visit began with a tour of the Bishop Museum’s extensive collection, led by artist and cultural advisor, Marques Marzan. The Museum’s objects, photographs and displays provided valuable insights into Hawai’ian history and Hawai’i’s connection to other Pacific island cultures, as well as context for a number of contemporary issues referenced and expressed by artists in works displayed in the Biennial.

A tour of the Bishop Museum, led by Marques Marzan

Warmly welcomed by the HB19 Board, Executive Director, Curators and staff, as well as representatives from the Bishop Museum, Ali‘iolani Hale and Honolulu Museum of Art, QAGOMA’s Contemporary Patrons were deeply moved by the ‘aloha’ spirit extended to them by all associated with the Biennial.

Over three days the group enjoyed a varied itinerary taking in special HB19 preview tours and opening events at the Biennial’s primary exhibition space ‘The Hub’, as well as viewings and tours at partner sites including Foster Botanical Gardens, Ali‘iolani Hale, Honolulu Museum of Art and the Hawai‘i State Art Museum. These provided opportunities to meet and hear directly from a large number of HB19 exhibiting artists as well as local curators.

Related: APT ‘The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT) is the Gallery’s flagship contemporary art series. Since 1993, the series has presented a unique mix of the most exciting and important contemporary art from the region.

While in Honolulu, the group also connected with resident artists who featured in previous instalments of QAGOMA’s flagship exhibition series, ‘The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT). Artists Masami Teraoka (APT5) and Solomon Enos (APT6) both generously opened their studios to share current projects and discuss recent developments in their practice.

Masami Teraoka

Artist Masami Teraoka with QAGOMA Director Chris Saines CNZM
Masami Teraoka, Japan/United States b.1936 / McDonald’s Hamburgers Invading Japan/Chochin-me 1982 / 36 colour screenprint on Arches 88 paper / 54.3 x 36.5cm (comp.) / Purchased 2005. The Queensland Government’s Gallery of Modern Art Acquisitions Fund / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Masami Teraoka

Solomon Enos

Artist Solomon Enos in his studio

Solomon Enos, Hawai’i/United States b.1976 / Kuu era: Polyfantastica the beginning (installed at APT6, GOMA and detail) 2006 / Gouache and synthetic polymer paint on paper / 53 sheers: 38x29cm (each) / © Solomon Enos

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Another opportunity not to be missed was a visit to the Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design, the former Honolulu home of American heiress and philanthropist Doris Duke (1912-1993). Inspired by Duke’s extensive travels throughout North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia and reflecting architectural traditions from India, Iran, Morocco and Syria, a tour provided by the Honoulu Museum of Art of this opulent home located on absolute beachfront was among the highlights of a very enlightening and stimulating trip.

Dominique Jones is Foundation Philanthropy Manager, QAGOMA

Contemporary Patrons at the Honolulu Museum of Art / Members of the Gallery’s Contemporary Patrons group, accompanied by QAGOMA Director Chris Saines CNZM, travelled to Hawai‘i in early March 2019

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Feature image detail: Solomon Enos Polyfantastica 2018, HB19

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Vale: Gordon Shepherdson

 

QAGOMA pays tribute to Brisbane painter Gordon Shepherdson (1934–2019) who passed away in July – an enduring presence in the local art community over many decades, Shepherdson was known for his unique approach to expressionist figuration. People, flowers, animals, the night sky and his favourite fishing spots – he painted them from memory with both brush and fingertips. Shepherdson’s process was tactile, meditative and direct, and engaged his deep sensitivity for his subjects.

Born in Brisbane, Shepherdson attended Gatton Agricultural College for two years from the age of 14. He left his studies for an office job in 1950, followed by a stint of itinerant farm work. At 18, Shepherdson returned to Brisbane, where he worked in the shipyards during the day and attended art classes at night, first with Caroline Barker at the Royal Queensland Art Society in 1951, and ten years later with Jon Molvig and Andrew Sibley. For 23 years, he worked in an abattoir to support his wife and children; his workplace providing subject matter for his paintings on occasion.

Shepherdson often cast his subjects against dark blue, deep red and pitch black backgrounds, giving definition to his searching forms and heightening the rich colours of his enamel paints. The dark spaces of his paintings also emphasise the serious introspection that informs their making – Shepherdson infused his work with a strong sense of the profundity of existence, the luck that we are here at all amid the darkness of the universe. As bleak as this outlook may seem, it also embodies a sense of the miraculous.

The artist painted regularly until recent years, limited only by his failing health, and his works are held in public and private collections around Australia. Gordon Shepherdson is remembered by family and friends for his immense kindness, good humour and generous spirit, attributes he preserved to the end of his life.

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Gordon Shepherdson, Australia 1934-2019 / The stoning of St Stephen 1989 / Oil and enamel on board / 200 x 260cm / Purchased 1998. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Gordon Shepherdson
Gordon Shepherdson, Australia 1934-2019 / The reason 1989 / Oil and enamel on board / 200 x 260cm / Gift of Noela Shepherdson through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 1998 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Gordon Shepherdson
Gordon Shepherdson, Australia 1934-2019 / Lorca’s horse 2005 / Oil and enamel on paper / 110 x 108cm / Gift of the Josephine Ulrick and Win Schubert Foundation for the Arts through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2013. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Gordon Shepherdson

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The stoning of St Stephen 1989, The reason 1989, and Lorca’s horse 2005 are currently on view at the Queensland Art Gallery. 

Feature image detail: Gordon Shepherdson The stoning of St Stephen 1989

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Watch Ben Quilty draw with Margaret Olley’s teapot cast in chalk

 

Watch our time-lapse as Ben Quilty draws portraits of Margaret Olley on the wall of the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA). These large-scale chalk drawings are based on preparatory sketches he made for his Archibald Prize winning portrait of Olley. Quilty has cast in chalk some of the objects she gave him over the years; teapots, jugs, and vases, and used these to draw with.

Watch the time-lapse of ‘Margaret remembered’

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Ben Quilty first met Margaret Olley after she awarded him the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2002. Of course, when Quilty first heard that Olley was going to be guest judge of the Scholarship he was convinced there was no way he could win — his practice was just too gritty and abstract to appeal to Olley’s interests.

Surprised, Quilty struck a friendship with Olley that would endure to her last days. Olley’s mentorship and advocacy certainly bolstered Quilty’s career — and undoubtedly Quilty’s youthful appreciation of Olley’s spirit, tenacity and lifetime achievement was gratifying given her lifelong devotion to her practice.

RELATED: Ben Quilty

RELATED: Margaret Olley

Archibald Prize 2011

Ben Quilty, Australia, b.1973 / Margaret Olley 2011 / Collection: Art Gallery of New South Wales / © Ben Quilty

In 2011, he convinced Olley to sit for a portrait that would win the Archibald Prize that same year. His sketchbook from that sitting has now become the source for a delicate yet soaring wall-drawing that connects these two exhibitions in a tribute to Margaret Olley.

Ben Quilty’s sketches of Margaret Olley in preparation for his Archibald Prize portrait / © Ben Quilty
Ben Quilty, Australia b. 1973 / Margaret Olley 2011 / Etchings on paper created from his sketchbook in preparation for his Archibald Prize portrait / © Ben Quilty

Using pastels cast in the shapes of teapots, jugs and vases from Olley’s home studio, Quilty has captured her unmistakable presence one more time. Quilty has cast in chalk some of the objects Olley gave him over the years: teapots, jugs and other vessels, and has used these to draw as series of portraits.

Wall-drawing

Ben Quilty has created a series of site-specific, hand-drawn portraits of Margaret Olley.
These large-scale chalk drawings of Margaret Olley are based on preparatory sketches he made for his award winning Archibald Portrait.
The various objects cast in chalk and used as drawing tools are on display below the wall-drawings.
Ben Quilty soaks the various vessels in water that he had cast in chalk before drawing.

Ben Quilty has created a series of site-specific, hand-drawn portraits of Margaret Olley, using a range of objects cast in chalk such as teapots, jugs and other vessels.

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‘A Generous Life’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) 15 June – 13 October 2019 examined the legacy and influence of much-loved Australian artist Margaret Olley, who spent a formative part of her career in Brisbane. A charismatic character, whose life was immersed in art, she exerted a lasting impact on many artists as a mentor, friend and muse.

Feature image: Ben Quilty sketching his large-scale drawings for Margaret remembered
#BenQuilty #MargaretOlley #QAGOMA

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: A legend in art & story

 

Dick Roughsey is well known to many Australians for his vividly illustrated children’s books The Rainbow Serpent and The Giant Devil Dingo – Jennifer Isaacs explores his life and work and offers her personal recollections of the artist, from his upbringing on Mornington Island to his pivotal role in the early years of the Australia Council.

Dick Roughsey showing his bark paintings at Karumba Lodge, 1963 / Image courtesy: Valerie Lhuede

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey ‘Untitled’

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, Lardil people, Australia 1924–85 / Untitled / Pigment on bark / 145 x 67cm / Donated by Ray Crooke through the Cultural Gifts Program, 2011 / Collection: Cairns Art Gallery / © Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey/Copyright Agency

Dick Roughsey, also known as Goobalathaldin, was a Lardil artist from Mornington Island in the Gulf of Carpentaria. While his artistic practice had its origins in traditional bark painting, he later transitioned into modern paintings in oil and acrylic and became well known for his illustrated children’s books, winning the Children’s Book of the Year award twice during the late 1970s. His writing and art made him a pioneer cultural educator, and his book Moon and Rainbow (1971) was the first autobiography by an Indigenous Australian. He was appointed OBE in 1978.

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey ‘Trezise. Roughsey at the caves’

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, Lardil people, Australia 1924–85 / Trezise. Roughsey at the caves 1970 / Oil on board / 28 x 36.5cm / Purchased 2012 / Collection: University of Queensland / © Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey/Copyright Agency
Dick Roughsey sitting beside the tent in Percy Trezise’s camp, Cape York 1971 / Dick Roughsey stacking up newly cut bark for paintings, 1971 / Photographs: Jennifer Isaacs

I first met Dick in 1970, stepping out of a lift with his friend and fellow painter, Percy Trezise. Percy was an airline pilot, historian and documenter of Aboriginal rock art, and together he and Dick spent many years locating cave painting sites near Laura in Cape York, which Percy mapped with meticulous scale drawings. On this occasion they were arriving to present plans for the preservation of these cave paintings at a meeting of the Aboriginal Advisory Committee of the Australia Council for the Arts, chaired by Dr HC ‘Nugget’ Coombs. Following the successful 1967 Referendum, the Australian Government was looking to encourage and stimulate the arts of Aboriginal Australians through a range of policy initiatives designed to support all areas of cultural practice; this committee included the most outstanding Indigenous leaders in the arts, as well as academic advisers from disciplines ranging from music, dance, art and anthropology. Throughout this period, his peers included many Indigenous leaders who would come to be celebrated over the following decades as fighters for justice and champions of land rights.1 Dick had every reason to be confident of his stature among them and, in 1974, he would become the first Chair of the fully Indigenous Aboriginal Arts Board (under Prime Minister Gough Whitlam’s new larger Australia Council).

Percy Trezise and Dick Roughsey discuss a painting of the Rainbow Serpent with Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, 19 March 1975 / Collection: National Library of Australia / Photograph: Don Edwards/Australian Information Service
Xavier Herbert, Thancoupie, Percy Trezise and Dick Roughsey (with unknown, far left), c.1980s / Image courtesy: Jennifer Isaacs

In 1970s Sydney, Dick was a charming, warm, urbane presence. He was a frequent visitor to our menagerie of a household in Glebe, where a rolling number of itinerants stayed for both short and long periods, including many artists. Sometimes lonely, Dick came for the company, the food and a few beers — around the kitchen table, his jocular, raconteuring manner produced numerous larger-than-life tales of his exploits. He was particularly close with Dr Thancoupie Gloria Fletcher (Thanakupi), an artist from Weipa, who was also kin and became one of the country’s most respected ceramicists. Dick was older by 15 years, but they talked incessantly of their families. Thancoupie — whom Dick always called Gloria, or ‘my gel’ — listened eagerly to his updates on his wife Elsie and their six children on Mornington Island.

Dick was in his mid-forties at the time I met him, but these years in Sydney were a world away from where he grew up. After a fully self-sufficient hunting life on Mornington Island in his youth — surviving on turtle, shellfish, fishing and spearing game — Dick also worked on cattle stations at Tallawanta, Gregory Downs and Lorraine Station (where the food was so bad he took off on foot to Burketown and was police-escorted back to Mornington Island). He was a stockman and ringer, mustering, dipping, branding and droving long distances with pack horses. He was also an experienced deckhand on the Cora — which travelled across the Gulf to the east coast of the Northern Territory, Mornington Island, Aurukun and Weipa — and he enjoyed the open air and the smell of the sea.

Related: Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey ‘Tribe on the move in the past, Cape York’

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, Lardil people, Australia 1924-1985 / Tribe on the move in the past, Cape York 1983 / Oil on board / 30 x 40cm / Gift of Simon, Maggie and Pearl Wright through the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation 2015. Donated through the Australian Government’s Cultural Gifts Program / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey/Copyright Agency

However, this was still the era Aboriginal people call the ‘Dog Act’ times; in order to leave Mornington Island to work on cattle stations, Dick needed a permit to leave — a ‘dog tag’.He mostly avoided this through misdeeds and purposely stealing cattle, hoping to be sent to Palm Island, from which he imagined he could run away. From the adventures he regaled us with, and from his autobiography, it is clear that his larrikin nature and determined personality repeatedly led him to try to escape island life — dominated by the mission — to a life offering greater and more exciting opportunities. But World War Two intervened, and his theft was forgiven by default when the cattle stations called for men in wartime and he was suddenly sent out to work them. During the war years, he also assisted in the location and recovery of wreckage and human remains from American planes that crashed in the Gulf. He married Elsie at the Presbyterian Church on Mornington Island in September 1944.

Throughout the 1950s, Dick worked on the mainland and also lived at the mission during the wet season. By 1960, he and his elder brother Lindsay (Burrud) began painting barks as well as carving utensils, spears and artefacts. Unlike Arnhem Land bark paintings, Lardil works were quite figurative, and primarily done in sequenced vignettes — like comic books — that told a cautionary tale or Creation story. These stories were well known to people of Dick’s age, but it concerned him that the younger generation ignored them. He frequently attached his own handwritten explanations on the back of the bark paintings.

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey ‘Strange procession passing by’

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, Lardil people, Australia 1924-1985 / Strange procession passing by (from ‘Jackey Jackey and Kennedy’ series) 1983 / Oil on board / 60 x 90cm / Gift of Barbara Blackman through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 1998 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey/Copyright Agency, 2019

Dick’s bark works featured ceremonial scenes relating to aspects of love magic (Djarada), flood, birth, initiation, burial practices and punishment for transgression of the laws. Realistic figures appear frozen in action but bear the full repertoire of Lardil body paint designs, wearing ceremonial hats, cockatoofeather head bands and woven arm bands. They are shown in silhouette or in profile, often in shake-a-leg dance position or poised ready to hurl weapons. The figures are arranged in tiers, sometimes with an inventory of Lardil artefacts and weapons.

In 1962, Dick was a yardman at the lodge in Karumba, the only town in Gulf Country that sits right on the coast — extensive tidal flats and shifting sands make other coastal settlement impossible in the region. As a pilot for Ansett, Percy Trezise often stopped overnight in Karumba on his route across the Gulf. The two men struck up a friendship through painting when the manager of the lodge commissioned Percy to paint a mermaid on the floor of the swimming pool. Percy would later become one of the strongest influences on Dick’s practice and career, and a catalyst for his journey into the mainstream art world. Percy particularly encouraged Dick to paint his own cultural knowledge and stories, rather than to try to emulate the work of Albert Namatjira, whose art was hugely popular and who was Dick’s personal hero.

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey ‘The Birth of Goobalathaldin’

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey, Lardil people, Australia 1924-1985 / The Birth of Goobalathaldin 1984 / Private collection / © Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey/Copyright Agency, 2019

Dick and Percy began going on frequent camping trips on the Cape York Peninsula to paint and to map cave paintings in the sandstone escarpment. Dick’s consultations with traditional owners — particularly Willy Long, who lived in a corrugated tin-shack settlement a few miles from Laura — enabled him to record the mythological meanings of many of the cave images and to discuss the consistencies with his own Lardil stories. The Rainbow Serpent often featured in his paintings, along with the giant dog or dingo. When, on Percy’s advice, Dick turned to other media, he began exploring hunting images, with lyrical and romantic depictions of gathering firewood, hunting turtles, or swimming among the water lilies in blue lagoons.

Ray Crooke ‘Portrait of Dick Roughsey’

Ray Crooke, Australia 1922–2015 / Portrait of Dick Roughsey 1996 / Oil on canvas / 84.4 x 113.5cm / Purchased by Cairns Regional Gallery, 1999 / Collection: Cairns Art Gallery / © Estate of Ray Crooke/Copyright Agency

Renowned artist Ray Crooke was another important mentor in Dick’s life, and Dick, Percy and Ray developed a tight camaraderie on their bush painting adventures. Crooke strongly influenced Dick with his advanced knowledge of oil painting technique, which is evident in Dick’s depictions of life vignettes using strong bodily form, rounded dark figures and sensuous tropical colour. Whereas Dick’s bark paintings were two-dimensional, his shift to working with oils and acrylics on Masonite or artists’ board introduced perspective both in the figures and in the landscape. The new medium enabled Dick to make thematic series portraying historical events, including the ill-fated 1848 expedition to the tip of Cape York by Edmund Kennedy and his Aboriginal guide, Jackey Jackey. As Percy’s son, Steve Trezise, observed while watching the men paint together: ‘Ray introduced the word chiaroscuro and kept saying, “More white, more white, mix it”, to assist Dick to achieve a middle ground in his landscape perspectives’.

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey & Percy Trezise ‘The next resting place was at Fairview where he decided to make another lily lagoon called Minalinka…’

Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey and Percy Trezise / The next resting place was at Fairview where he decided to make another lily lagoon called Minalinka… (from ‘Rainbow Serpent Illustrations’) 1974 / Synthetic polymer paint / 25.4 x 48cm (framed) / Collection: Fryer Library, The University of Queensland Library / © Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey/Copyright Agency. Estate of Percy Trezise

The Rainbow Serpent

Dick moved to Cairns in 1964 and continued to produce enough work for his paintings to be exhibited in shows around the country.3 In the early 1970s, he began working in the genre he became best known for, the stories and vivid illustrations for his children’s books, including The Giant Devil Dingo (1973) and The Rainbow Serpent (1975). These were followed by a series relating to the Quinkan (spirit) figures in the cave art he was so familiar with, and other fearsome characters in the legends. Percy was integral to this work and he co-authored the later books in the series, which enraptured Australian school children for two decades and were among the first books to introduce Aboriginal culture to children.

Late in his life, Dick was badly afflicted by trachoma. This eye condition frustrated and worried him, and he painted less. As tastes in art, and specifically Indigenous art, swerved towards the new, modern, colourful acrylics of the desert, opportunities faded for sell-out shows of his work. To unaware new collectors, his paintings seemed folksy, naive or didactic. He returned to Mornington Island where he passed away from cancer in 1985.

Dick Roughsey’s pioneering life is an extraordinary and unique Australian story. He was one of ‘the first heroes’, an adventurer, a traveller between so many worlds — black and white, yet also mission and city, urban and village, and through the spiritual worlds of other ‘tribes’. He was brave and determined, yet also a very gifted artist who set high standards for others.

Jennifer Isaacs AM is a writer, art consultant and independent curator. She was made a Member of the Order of Australia in 2003 in recognition of her work promoting Aboriginal culture and assisting Aboriginal artists.

Endnotes
1 These included painter Wandjuk Marika, the protagonist in the first land rights case; poet, playwright and musician George Winungwidj; writer, poet and activist Kath Walker (Oodgeroo Noonucal); community leader and first Aboriginal subject of a published autobiography, Phillip Roberts; union leader Chicka Dixon; land rights campaigner Eddie Mabo; and writer Jack Davis.
2 The Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act 1939 became known as the ‘Dog Act’ for its restrictions on human rights and freedoms. It prevented free movement, made possession or use of alcohol illegal, excluded ATSI people from voting rights and curtailed rights to own land and access justice. Under this law, people were settled away from their land by force, children were removed, certain marriages were forbidden and other injustices were perpetrated. On missions, the manager or superintendent determined suitable work and set the wage (usually low) and could seize property.
3 Exhibitions of Dick Roughsey’s work were held at various spaces during his career, including the Upstairs Gallery, Cairns; Artarmon Gallery, Wagner Art Gallery and Holdsworth Galleries, Sydney; Macquarie Galleries, Canberra; Australian Galleries, Melbourne; Bonython Gallery, Adelaide; and Anvil Gallery, Albury.

‘Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land’ / Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane / 30 March until 18 August 2019  / The first major retrospective celebrating the work and life of Roughsey (1920-1985). 

‘Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land’ is a collaboration between Cairns Art Gallery and QAGOMA.

Acknowledgment of Country
The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) acknowledges the traditional custodians of the land upon which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution Indigenous people make to the art and culture of this country.

It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs on the QAGOMA Blog are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

Feature image detail: Dick Roughsey Strange procession passing by (from ‘Jackey Jackey and Kennedy’ series) 1983
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