A Brief History
The Balgo Arts Centre, officially known as Warlayirti Artists, is located in Balgo, a small Aboriginal community in the southeast corner of the Kimberley region of Western Australia. This arts centre is renowned for its vibrant contemporary Indigenous art, produced by artists from the Wirrimanu (Balgo) region, which lies at the intersection of several traditional lands and cultural groups, including the Kukatja, Ngardi, and Walmajarri peoples.
The community of Balgo was initially formed in the 1930s as a Catholic mission, where it became a gathering point for the displaced desert tribes. This mix of people from different regions created a unique cultural and linguistic blend.
In the mid 1940s anthropologist Ronald Bernstein began working with senior men, and by the fifties they were producing artefacts for the ethnographic market. In the early seventies, Pintupi people visiting Balgo for ceremonial exchange, brought with them news of the Papunya Tula painting movement. While initially wary of committing traditional designs to a public medium, some artists began to paint occasionaly, with works marketed through the Balgo store.
In early 1981 the church introduced adult education classes. Sister Alice Dempsey and local artist Matthew Gill led the first art centre, aiming to revive the interest of elders in passing down their Dreaming stories to a younger generation. A full time art coordinator was later employed with help of a grant from the Commonwealth Government, which allowed the community to properly document the artwork being produced.
The Warlayirti Artists Aboriginal Corporation was formally established in 1987, and the late 1980s and 1990s saw the Balgo Arts Centre gain wider recognition. The artists developed a distinctive style, characterized by vivid and bold use of colour, geometric patterns, and abstract depictions of their ancestral lands. Their works were deeply rooted in Tjukurrpa (Dreaming stories) and offered visual maps of their sacred landscapes.
In 1987 Sister Dempsey collaborated with Ronald Bernstein and organised the exhibition ‘Aboriginal Art for the great Sandy Desert’ (1986 - 1987) at the Art Gallery of Western Australia launching Balgo as new art community.
Balgo art made its mark in the eastern States with the landmark exhibition ‘Mythscapes’ (NGV 1989). Inclusion in international exhibitions such as ‘Songlines’ (London 1990), and ‘Yama, Peintres Aborigènes de Lajamanu et Balgo' (Paris 1991) and ‘Aratjara’ (Düsseldorf, London and Humlebaek 1993 - 1994) followed.
A notable figure during this time was Eubena Nampitjin, one of the most respected artists from the centre. Her work was celebrated for its intricate designs and deep spiritual connection to her land. Alongside her, artists like Millie Skeen, and Helicopter Tjungurrayi gained national, and subsequently international acclaim.
Balgo art is featured in major public and private collections across the globe, including the National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of NSW, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, and the Kluge-Ruhr Collection at the University of Virginia.
Fig 1. Eubena Nampitjin (1921 - 2013), Ngunguntarra, 1999. 120 x 80cm. Acrylic on linen canvas.
EUBENA NAMPITJIN (1921 - 2013)
Eubena was born around 1920 at Tjinjadpa, west of Jupiter Well, Great Sandy Desert. She had little contact with non indigenous Australians until she was in her twenties. She and her family travelled the Canning Stock Route to Billiluna Station following the mission until it was established at its present site in Balgo. Here Eubena became a senior law maker for her people.
Eubena began painting in 1986 when women were becoming more included in the art movement, and many of her early paintings were collaborations with her second husband Wimmitji Tjapangarti. They developed a unique style of representing their environment using the warm colours of the desert. Her reputation grew, initially as one half of this famous duo, and then as a sought after solo artist becoming one of the major artists from the Balgo community.
While living at Balgo Eubena continued to travel back to her country, living in and from the land for extended periods. Her paintings are metaphors for her landscape, and she often depicted the water holes that her family used when she was a child, the women’s dancing tracks and the sacred rocks.
Solo exhibitions of Eubena’s work were held in 2000 and 2002, and her work is part of the collection of several national museums and galleries across Australia and internationally.
A 2023 Auction at Sotheby's New York achieved the highest price recorded for the artist, with Midjul (2008) selling at US$63,500 (nearly £50,000).
Ngunguntarra (Fig. 1) depicts two waterholes. The ‘yinta’, as they are referred to in the Kukatja language, are represented as circular shapes in the middle of the painting. These waterholes are a permanent source of water in Eubena’s country, and this particular site is known as Ngunguntarra’. ‘Tali’ or sand hills common to this country fan out around the central icons. The colours are allowed to merge through Eubena's technique of using one brush dipped in different colours to create her scenes.
Featured Exhibitions
First Nations Art Exhibition, Australia High Commission, London 2023
Country, Sidney Nolan Trust 2022
Dreamtime, Linlithgow Burgh Halls 2019
MILLIE SKEEN NAMPITJIN (1932-1997)
Millie Skeen Nampitjin was born near Kiwirrkura, nearly five hundred kilometres south of Balgo. She travelled to the Balgo area as a young girl and later married Tommy Skeen Tjakamarra.
Fig 2. Millie Skeen Nampitjin (1932-1997), Nakarra Nakarra south of Balgo, 1991. 100 x 50 cm. Acrylic on linen canvas.
Millie began painting in 1986, and was one of the first women to paint at Balgo, becoming one of the leaders of the art movement established there. Her work covers subjects such as the emu Dreaming, the making of tjimari (stone knives), the Tjipari women’s song cycle, and sites related to the Nakarra Nakarra song cycle in the Balgo area.
Millie’s early works make use of darker natural palettes which reflected the Balgo paintings created between 1985 and 1989. She then went on to adopt and use brighter colours. Millie's work was included in Balgo’s first commercial exhibitions, and she was one of the artists featured in Balgo’s first exhibition at the Art Gallery of Western Australia in 1989. Her work is held in several important collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria and the Kluge-Ruhr Collection at the University of Virginia.
Nakarra Nakarra south of Balgo shows the Nakarra Nakarra women who metamorphosed, in moiety groups into the two groups of hills at the site.
This painting is featured in Christine Watson’s 2003 book, 'Piercing the Ground: Balgo women's image making and relationship to country'.
JUBILEE PARTUPAYAI
Born around 1927, Jubilee was a contemporary of Eubena and Millie's. He spent the first part of his life in Yitjinpiyi, near Lake Mackay in Western Australia.
Fig 3. Jubilee Partupayai (c1927), Untitled, 1992. 91 x 61 cm. Acrylic on linen canvas.
This painting is believed to represent the artist's country. It is marked by many ephemeral claypans and dry salt lakes. These features are believed to have been formed by momentous events in the time of the Tjukurrpa or Dreaming. These are also recounted in ceremonial songs and dances that are maintained by senior men such as the artist.
Painted in 1992, this early Balgo work is in contrast to that of Eubena and Millie in that Jubilee continues to make use of softer, earthy colours, giving a more naturalistic impression of the landscape.
The contrast in these three styles highlights the mix of cultural and language groups, each with their own history and heritage, as well as the unique and diverse approaches of the artists.
References and Further reading:
Balgo: Creating Country, John Carty (2021)
Piercing the Ground: Balgo women's image making and relationship to country, Christine Watson (2003)
Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture, editors: Sylvia Kleinert and Margo Neale (2000)
Balgo New directions, James Cowan (1999)
Wirrimanu, Aboriginal art from the Balgo Hills, James Cowan (1994)
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