There are particular moments in the history of art when exceptional
things happen. Such a moment occurred in the 1950s in Milingimbi, the
small island community in Arnhem Land in far northern Australia.
Gathered in groups in the deep shade of the tamarind trees, artists
worked alongside one another, their individual approaches and shared
visual language resulting in a distinctive style of painting of a
quality and scale never before seen. These artists - including
Binyinyuwuy, Buranday, Dayngangan, Dawidi, Djäwa, Djimbarrdjimbarrwuy,
Lipundja and Makani - created exquisite bark paintings with jewel‐like
surfaces that capture the complexities of land, sea, sky and cultural
inheritance in the one seemingly abstracted image.
Art from Milingimbi, developed in close collaboration with the
Milingimbi community, celebrates these artists and their art. It
presents ‒ for the first time ‒ sixty-two exquisite bark paintings by
fifteen artists, as well as ceremonial and utilitarian objects from a
unique collection held at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. While
there has been great interest in art from western and northeastern
Arnhem Land and Ramingining, there has been little written or published
on the exemplary art of Milingimbi. With new research conducted with the
Milingimbi community, this book is the first publication about
Milingimbi and the exemplary artists working there in the 1950s.
