Josepha Petrick Kemarre
Encyclopedia
Josepha Petrick Kemarre is an Anmatyerre
-speaking Indigenous Australian from Central Australia
. Since first taking up painting around 1990, her works of contemporary Indigenous Australian art
have been acquired by several major collections including Artbank
and the National Gallery of Victoria
. Her paintings portray bush plum
"dreaming
" and women’s ceremonies (known as Awelye), and have sold at auction for up to A$
22,800.
-speaking Indigenous Australian, born around 1945 or 1953 at the Santa Teresa Mission, near Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.
When Josepha Petrick began painting for Mbantua Gallery in central Australia, she indicated that her name was Josepha rather than Josie, and that this was how she henceforth wished to be known; however Mbantua's biography is the only source that has used that version of her name.
After marrying Robin Petyarre, brother of artist Gloria Petyarre
, Josepha Petrick moved to the region of Utopia
, north-east of Alice Springs, which is where she was living when she began painting around 1990. They had seven children, one of whom, Damien Petrick, went on to become an artist like his mother. By 2008, Josie Petrick's husband had died, and Petrick was dividing her time between Alice Springs and Harts Range
, to its north-east.
Contemporary Indigenous art of the western desert began in 1971 when Indigenous men at Papunya created murals and canvases using western art materials, assisted by teacher Geoffrey Bardon
. Their work, which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures, rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia, particularly after the introduction of a government-sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983. By the 1980s and '90s, such work was being exhibited internationally. The first artists, including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula
artists' company, were men, and there was resistance among the Pintupi men of central Australia to women also painting. However, many of the women wished to participate, and in the 1990s many of them began to paint. In the western desert communities such as Utopia, Kintore
, Yuendumu, Balgo
, and on the outstations
, people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale.
, and in 2005 a work was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria
. Her career received a significant boost when her work was included in the National Gallery of Victoria's 2006 Landmarks exhibition and its catalogue; her painting was printed opposite that of Yannima Tommy Watson
, who was by this time famous, particularly for his contribution to the design of a new building for the Musée du quai Branly
. Petrick's paintings have been included at exhibitions in several private galleries in Melbourne and Hong Kong, as well as at the Australian embassy in Washington in 2001.
In 2006 a commissioned work by Petrick was exhibited at Shalom College at the University of New South Wales
as part of a charity fundraising exhibition. It sold for A$
22,000. As of the end of 2008, the highest recorded auction price for an item of Petrick's work was $22,800, set in May 2007. An image based on a triptych
by Petrick, Bush Berries, appears on the cover of a book on the visual perception of motion, Motion Vision.
Central Australian artists frequently paint particular "dreamings
", or stories, for which they have responsibility or rights. These stories are used to pass "important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems" from generation to generation. Paintings by Petrick portray two different groups of dreamings, rendered in two distinct styles. Bush plum
dreaming represents a plant of the central Australian desert which is "a source of physical and spiritual sustenance, reminding [the local Indigenous people] of the sacredness of [their] country". These paintings are undertaken with red, blue and orange dots that represent the fruit at different stages in its development. She also paints women’s ceremonies (Awelye) and dreamings, and these are created using rows of coloured dots and include representations of women's ceremonial iconography
.
Journalist Zelda Cawthorne described Petrick as one of the "finest contemporary Aboriginal artists". Art consultant Adrian Newstead has ranked her as amongst the country's top 200 Indigenous artists, noting that she has become "known for innovative works that create a sense of visual harmony through fine variegated fields of immaculately applied dotting". Her style is described by Indigenous art writers Birnberg and Kreczmanski as an "interesting, modern interpretation of landscape".
Petrick's work is held in a variety of public and private collections, including Artbank
, the Charles Sturt University
Collection, the Holmes a Court
Collection, and the National Gallery of Victoria
.
Anmatyerre
Anmatyerr, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. They are from an area near Arnka , Arwerlt Atwaty Anmatyerr, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. They are from an area near Arnka (Mount Leichhardt),...
-speaking Indigenous Australian from Central Australia
Central Australia
Central Australia/Alice Springs Region is one of the five regions in the Northern Territory. The term Central Australia is used to describe an area centred on Alice Springs in Australia. It is sometimes referred to as Centralia; likewise the people of the area are sometimes called Centralians...
. Since first taking up painting around 1990, her works of contemporary Indigenous Australian art
Contemporary Indigenous Australian art
Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians. It is generally regarded as beginning with a painting movement that started at Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory in 1971, involving artists such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri...
have been acquired by several major collections including Artbank
Artbank
Artbank is an art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. It supports contemporary Australian artists and encourages a wider appreciation of their work by buying artworks which it then rents to public and private sector clients. It was modeled on the Canadian Art Bank,...
and the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
. Her paintings portray bush plum
Carissa spinarum
Carissa spinarum, the Conkerberry or Bush Plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family , widely distributed in tropical regions around the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called Currant Bush or, more ambiguously, "native currant" or even "black currant"...
"dreaming
Dreaming (spirituality)
The Dreaming is a common term within the animist creation narrative of indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation and for what may be understood as the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating....
" and women’s ceremonies (known as Awelye), and have sold at auction for up to A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
22,800.
Personal background
Josepha Petrick Kemarre is an AnmatyerreAnmatyerre
Anmatyerr, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. They are from an area near Arnka , Arwerlt Atwaty Anmatyerr, are an Indigenous Australian people, or language group, from the Northern Territory. They are from an area near Arnka (Mount Leichhardt),...
-speaking Indigenous Australian, born around 1945 or 1953 at the Santa Teresa Mission, near Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory.
When Josepha Petrick began painting for Mbantua Gallery in central Australia, she indicated that her name was Josepha rather than Josie, and that this was how she henceforth wished to be known; however Mbantua's biography is the only source that has used that version of her name.
After marrying Robin Petyarre, brother of artist Gloria Petyarre
Gloria Petyarre
Gloria Petyarre is an Australian Aboriginal artist from the Anmatyerre community, just north of Alice Springs...
, Josepha Petrick moved to the region of Utopia
Utopia, Northern Territory
Utopia is an Aboriginal homeland formed in November 1978 by the amalgamation of the former Utopia pastoral lease with a tract of unalienated land to its north. It covers an area of 3500 square kilometres, transected by the Sandover River, and lies on a traditional boundary of the Alyawarra and...
, north-east of Alice Springs, which is where she was living when she began painting around 1990. They had seven children, one of whom, Damien Petrick, went on to become an artist like his mother. By 2008, Josie Petrick's husband had died, and Petrick was dividing her time between Alice Springs and Harts Range
Harts Range, Northern Territory
Harts Range is a location in the Northern Territory. Most of its population are of Aboriginal descent. A transmitter for the Jindalee Operational Radar Network is located near Harts Range....
, to its north-east.
Professional background
Geoffrey Bardon
Geoffrey Robert Bardon AM 1940, Sydney – 6 May 2003) was an Australian school teacher who was instrumental in creating the Aboriginal art of the Western Desert movement, and in bringing Australian indigenous art to the attention of the world....
. Their work, which used acrylic paints to create designs representing body painting and ground sculptures, rapidly spread across Indigenous communities of central Australia, particularly after the introduction of a government-sanctioned art program in central Australia in 1983. By the 1980s and '90s, such work was being exhibited internationally. The first artists, including all of the founders of the Papunya Tula
Papunya Tula
Papunya Tula, or Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 that is owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative work with the Western Desert Art Movement, popularly referred to as "dot painting"...
artists' company, were men, and there was resistance among the Pintupi men of central Australia to women also painting. However, many of the women wished to participate, and in the 1990s many of them began to paint. In the western desert communities such as Utopia, Kintore
Kintore, Northern Territory
Kintore is a remote settlement in the Northern Territory of Australia, located approximately 530 km west of Alice Springs and close to the border with Western Australia. At the 2001 census, Kintore had a population of 691, of which 95% identified themselves as Aboriginal...
, Yuendumu, Balgo
Balgo, Western Australia
Balgo is a small Aboriginal Community in Western Australia which is linked with both the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert. The Community is in the Shire of Halls Creek, off the Tanami Road . It has a petrol station, supermarket, Catholic Parish, School Adult Education Centre, Clinic and...
, and on the outstations
Outstation movement
The Outstation movement refers to the relocation of Indigenous Australians from towns to remote outposts on traditional tribal land.As described in the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody a range of problems faced Aboriginal people living in towns.During the 1980s a number of groups...
, people were beginning to create art works expressly for exhibition and sale.
Career
Josepha Petrick began painting about 1990 or 1992 as part of the contemporary Indigenous art movement that had begun at Papunya in the 1970s. By 1998 her work was being collected by both private and public institutions, such as Charles Sturt UniversityCharles Sturt University
Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus university located in New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. It has campuses at Bathurst, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Goulburn, Orange, Wagga Wagga and Burlington, Ontario...
, and in 2005 a work was purchased by the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
. Her career received a significant boost when her work was included in the National Gallery of Victoria's 2006 Landmarks exhibition and its catalogue; her painting was printed opposite that of Yannima Tommy Watson
Yannima Tommy Watson
Yannima Tommy Watson is a senior Pitjantjatjara man from Australia’s central western desert who has become a significant contemporary Indigenous Australian artist...
, who was by this time famous, particularly for his contribution to the design of a new building for the Musée du quai Branly
Musée du quai Branly
thumb|225px|Musée du quai BranlyThe Musée du quai Branly , known in English as the Quai Branly Museum, nicknamed MQB, is a museum in Paris, France that features indigenous art, cultures and civilizations from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The museum is located at 37, quai Branly -...
. Petrick's paintings have been included at exhibitions in several private galleries in Melbourne and Hong Kong, as well as at the Australian embassy in Washington in 2001.
In 2006 a commissioned work by Petrick was exhibited at Shalom College at the University of New South Wales
University of New South Wales
The University of New South Wales , is a research-focused university based in Kensington, a suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
as part of a charity fundraising exhibition. It sold for A$
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
22,000. As of the end of 2008, the highest recorded auction price for an item of Petrick's work was $22,800, set in May 2007. An image based on a triptych
Triptych
A triptych , from tri-= "three" + ptysso= "to fold") is a work of art which is divided into three sections, or three carved panels which are hinged together and can be folded shut or displayed open. It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works...
by Petrick, Bush Berries, appears on the cover of a book on the visual perception of motion, Motion Vision.
Central Australian artists frequently paint particular "dreamings
Dreaming (spirituality)
The Dreaming is a common term within the animist creation narrative of indigenous Australians for a personal, or group, creation and for what may be understood as the "timeless time" of formative creation and perpetual creating....
", or stories, for which they have responsibility or rights. These stories are used to pass "important knowledge, cultural values and belief systems" from generation to generation. Paintings by Petrick portray two different groups of dreamings, rendered in two distinct styles. Bush plum
Carissa spinarum
Carissa spinarum, the Conkerberry or Bush Plum, is a large shrub of the dogbane family , widely distributed in tropical regions around the Indian Ocean. It is most well known in Australia, where it is also called Currant Bush or, more ambiguously, "native currant" or even "black currant"...
dreaming represents a plant of the central Australian desert which is "a source of physical and spiritual sustenance, reminding [the local Indigenous people] of the sacredness of [their] country". These paintings are undertaken with red, blue and orange dots that represent the fruit at different stages in its development. She also paints women’s ceremonies (Awelye) and dreamings, and these are created using rows of coloured dots and include representations of women's ceremonial iconography
Iconography
Iconography is the branch of art history which studies the identification, description, and the interpretation of the content of images. The word iconography literally means "image writing", and comes from the Greek "image" and "to write". A secondary meaning is the painting of icons in the...
.
Journalist Zelda Cawthorne described Petrick as one of the "finest contemporary Aboriginal artists". Art consultant Adrian Newstead has ranked her as amongst the country's top 200 Indigenous artists, noting that she has become "known for innovative works that create a sense of visual harmony through fine variegated fields of immaculately applied dotting". Her style is described by Indigenous art writers Birnberg and Kreczmanski as an "interesting, modern interpretation of landscape".
Petrick's work is held in a variety of public and private collections, including Artbank
Artbank
Artbank is an art rental program established in 1980 by the Australian Government. It supports contemporary Australian artists and encourages a wider appreciation of their work by buying artworks which it then rents to public and private sector clients. It was modeled on the Canadian Art Bank,...
, the Charles Sturt University
Charles Sturt University
Charles Sturt University is an Australian multi-campus university located in New South Wales, Victoria, and the Australian Capital Territory. It has campuses at Bathurst, Canberra, Albury-Wodonga, Dubbo, Goulburn, Orange, Wagga Wagga and Burlington, Ontario...
Collection, the Holmes a Court
Janet Holmes à Court
Janet Holmes à Court, AC, HFAIB is an Australian businesswoman, and one of Australia's wealthiest women. She is the Chairman of one of Australia's largest private companies, Heytesbury Pty Ltd, having turned around its fortunes after the death of her husband Robert Holmes à Court in 1990...
Collection, and the National Gallery of Victoria
National Gallery of Victoria
The National Gallery of Victoria is an art gallery and museum in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1861, it is the oldest and the largest public art gallery in Australia. Since December 2003, NGV has operated across two sites...
.