Let's Meet Johnny Warangkula
An AT (Aboriginal Teacher / Assistant Teacher) sat next to me the other week and was telling me how Johnny was her grandad.
"Johnny? Johnny who?", I asked, she looked bemused at me.
So I Googled and here's Johnny!
Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula (1925 – 12 February 2001) was an Australian painter whose work has been widely collected and well-regarded since the late 60s. Many of his pieces are said to stand out from that of other Australian Aboriginal artists in the way they present the transitory beauty of water and its transformative effect on the landscape represented in works. His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and elsewhere, including the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.
Yup, a full-on Wikipedia page all about him, cool!
And there's the connection:
In the last ten years of his life Warangkula lived with his second wife Gladys Napanangka at Papunya. He had two sons and six daughters from this marriage and two daughters from a previous one.
Let's have a look at some of Johnny's art. As with many art of this style imagine you are floating over the scene looking directly down and these paintings are more akin to maps than portraits. People are symbolised by a curve / U symbol, which represents the imprint left in the sand by a person sitting cross-legged. For a woman the artists often add the following:
- A Digging Stick: Represented by a single straight line.
- A Coolamon: Represented by an oval shape.
- Spears: Represented by one or more long, straight lines (sometimes with barbs).
- Boomerangs: Represented by curved or "L" shaped marks.
- Shields: Often shown as an elongated ova.
More Johnny info and art:
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