BETTY MPTEYANE CLUB
Betty Mpetyane Club (1957 - 2003)
My Mothers
30 x 30 cm. Acrylic on linen Canvas
ARTIST
Betty Mpetyane Club (1957–2023) was a distinguished Anmatyerre artist from the Utopia region in the Northern Territory of Australia. As the daughter of the renowned artist Minnie Pwerle and sister to accomplished artist Barbara Weir, Betty was deeply rooted in a family of celebrated Indigenous artists. Her mother, Minnie Pwerle, was a highly acclaimed artist whose creations were in great demand among collectors worldwide.
Betty's artwork primarily focused on themes passed down from her mother, notably the "Awelye" (women's ceremonial body paint designs) and the "Bush Melon Dreaming." These designs are integral to the cultural heritage of her mother's country, Atnwengerrp, in the Utopia region. Her paintings often featured fluid curves and vibrant linear patterns, reflecting the traditional body painting practices used in women's ceremonies.
Throughout her career, Betty's work was showcased in numerous exhibitions, including the "Utopia - A Picture Story" exhibition, which toured Ireland and Scotland in 1990. Her paintings are held in esteemed collections such as the Holmes à Court Collection in Perth and the Mbantua Gallery Collection in Alice Springs.
Betty's dedication to preserving and sharing her cultural stories through art has left a lasting legacy in the Indigenous Australian art community.
UTOPIA
Utopia has produced some of the most recognisable names in Aboriginal art and is notable for its strong tradition of discovering female artists. This continues today with a new generation of talented painters who are inspired by greats such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Gloria Petyarre, Kathleen Petyarre and Ada Bird who worked at Utopia.
The legacy of these pioneering woman is a diversity of style and approach that welcomes hundreds of other artists from the Utopia clan groups.
It is a region of approximately 5,000 sq km north-east of Alice Springs and is home to around 2,000 aboriginal people. The region largely lies on aboriginal owned land called Urapuntja, it is made up of several larger communities and some very small ones!
Art is by far the largest source of employment in an area which lacks employment opportunities and skills. There are well over 250 professional artists in the region, most of them have never attended an art class!
The creative movement in Utopia began with batik and the work they produced came to international attention and was exhibited around the world. When painting reached the communities in the late 1980’s, acrylic paint on canvas with its quick drying and no mess properties, soon overtook batik.
This is a multi-generational art movement that has led Utopia's artists to become leaders in female aboriginal art.