Fire (Gurtha V)
Artist:
Barrupu Yunupingu
(Australian, 1948 - 2012)
Date: 1998
Place made:Yirrkala, Australia, Oceania
Medium: Screen print
Dimensions:
22 1/16 x 29 15/16 in. (56 x 76 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, gift of the Lam Family
Object number: 2016.14.77
Copyright: © Barrupu Yunupingu
Provenance: May Lam and Dr. Dorothy Lam, by gift to the San Antonio Museum of Art, 2016
Exhibition History: San Antonio Museum of Art, Of Country and Culture: The Lam Collection of Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art, February 24-May 14, 2017
Label Text
This print represents the ancestral fire (Gurtha) that spread through eastern Arnhem Land; the fire transformed the land and made it what people know today. This major event is a recurring theme in Barrupu Yunupingu’s work, as well as that of others of the Gumatj language group. The twisting, diamond-shaped motif (known as miny’tj) is a sacred design that renders in two dimensions flames, smoke, charcoal, ash, and dust. Yunupingu’s interpretation is decidedly more abstract than most images of this subject, which are figurative or representational. The abstraction obscures the design’s meaning slightly to protect the viewer from Gurtha’s power.
(Exhibition label, 2017)
(Exhibition label, 2017)
Not on view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
