Minyawe Miller Warnman, circa 1932-2024
Provenance
Martumili Artists, Western Australia, cat. no. 10-75
Art Mob, Tasmania Fremantle Arts Centre, Western Australia
Private Collection, Brisbane
D’Lan Contemporary, Melbourne
Collection of Steve Martin & Anne Stringfield, New York
Exhibitions
We Don’t Need a Map: A Martu Experience of the Western Desert, Fremantle Arts Centre, Perth, 16 November 2012 – 20 January 2013
This painting depicts a large yinta (permanent waterhole) called Wungun Kurlu. This waterhole lies within the artist's country, where he once walked during the pujiman (bush) days. Martumili Artists was established in late 2006 and supports Martu artists living in Kunawarritji, Punmu, Parnngurr, Jigalong, Warralong, Irrungadji (Nullagine), and Parnpajinya (Newman). Many Martu artists have strong connections with established artists from the Yulparija, Kukatja, and other Western Desert groups, and are now gaining recognition for their own distinctive, dynamic, and direct painting styles. Their works reflect the dramatic geography and vast scale of their homelands in the Great Sandy Desert and Rudall River regions of Western Australia. Martumili Artists represents speakers of Manyjilyjarra, Warnman, Kartujarra, Putijarra, and Martu Wangka languages—many of whom only encountered Europeans for the first time in the 1960s. The artists include painters working in acrylics and oils, as well as weavers creating coiled baskets and sculptors working with wood, grass, and wool. Martu artists continue to proudly sustain their creative practices while also maintaining important social and cultural responsibilities across the Martu homelands. —Text from Martumili Artists