Jack Wunuwun

Jack Wunuwun (born 1930) was an Aboriginal painter, elder and singer, part of the Dijnang/Murrungun language group, from the Garmardi region in East Arnhem Land. He belonged to the Gangarl clan and is Dhuwa. His bark paintings drew from Aboriginal traditions and heritage but were also inspired by European art practice. Wunuwun saw his art as a way to achieve reconciliation between indigenous and balanda (non-indigenous) people. His work was considered innovative due to its creative use of perspective and three-dimensionality. His works are displayed in several collections including the Homes à Court, Perth; Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney; and the National Museum of Australia, Canberra. Wunuwun was considered one of the 'Old Masters' of Aboriginal art, and was featured in an exhibition curated by Wally Caruana entitled Old Masters: Australia's Greatest Bark Artists. He was part of a community of elders who believed that art was a means of closing the gap between the Aboriginal people and the Western settlers who were encroaching on their land. Wunuwun died in Darwin in 1990.
==Personal Life==
Born in Mewirnbi, his family moved to the Methodist Mission on Milingimbi island. During World War II, he moved to Darwin where he worked as an assistant chef in an Australian army camp. Wunuwun began making art during the 1960s at a time when the art market flourishing within Arnhem Land. In 1968, he experimented with bark painting for the first time and this soon became his preferred medium. During this period Westerners were establishing an increasing presence on the mainland, so Wunuwun and his brother in law, Johnny Bulun Bulun, moved to the Gamedi outstation. His Wangarr, which refers to land spirits, were the Djang'kawu sisters, the morning star, shark spirits and the fish trap. He is married to Margaret Landopu.
==Method of Art-Making==
Wunuwun would begin his art-making process by going to the bush to collect materials. Using a sledge hammer, he hacked at tree trunks while pieces of bark fell to the ground. Typically, he harvested his bark during the wet season as this was the best time to do so as the bark is moist. While he left the bark to dry for a few days, he collected his paints from the earth around him. He created red and yellow ochres from grinding the stones he found near his camp, white ochre from clay and black ochre from the charcoal from burning trees. He also created a brilliant orange ochre called 'airstrip' which he mined from the southern end of the Maningrida tarmac. Once the bark was dry and his ochres were ready, he would place the bark on the ground and sit down, painting away from his body. 
==Artworks==
Bartji (Jungle Yams) 
This is a bark painting that encapsulates several motifs that are unique and recognisable to Wunuwun. Firstly, the depiction of yam tubers through cross-hatching refers to Banumbirr, the Morning Star. He painted the yams in profile as if to symbolise humans engaging in the ceremony; yams were the artist's special totem. He also uses dotted lines to outline several motifs such as insects, dragonflies, moths, and butterflies. The use of dotted lines, greens, earthy tones and the acute attention to detail are all characteristic elements of Wunuwun's artwork. 
Banumbirr, the Morning Star, 1987 
This bark painting is a triptych depicting the Creation story that belongs to the Murrungun clan. The dead spirits keep Banumbirr in a dilly bag during the day, and release the star each evening to fly over Dhuwa lands on a feathered string. It returns to the dillybag every morning in an eternal cycle that represents birth, death and rebirth. He once again included the Yam totem as it is symbolic to growth and death, and the vine that it grows on resembles the string that the Morning Star is attached to. Wunuwun saw the production of works like these as an important opportunity to transfer knowledge onto the next generation, as well as to Western European audiences who are ignorant to Aboriginal culture. 
==Collections==
* Holmes à Court Collection, Perth
* Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney
* National Museum of Australia, Canberra
==Significant Exhibitions==
* Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, 2014
* Stories, from the Holmes à Court Collection, Sprengel Museum, Hannover, 1995
* Aratjara: Art of the First Australians, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf, 1993
* Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou and Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, 1989
* Artists of Arnhem Land, Canberra School of Art, Australian National University, Canberra, 1983
Category:1930 births
Category:People from the Northern Territory
Category:Australian people
Category:Singers
Category:Australian Aboriginal artists
Category:1990 deaths