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Aboriginal Artists from Ramingining -Jimmy
Wululu
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 Aboriginal artist Jimmy Wululu was born around 1936 at Mangbirri, a coastal settlement in Central Arnhem Land. His country is Djiliwirri, and his artist totems are Niwuda (honey), Djalumbu (hollow log), and Eel-Tailed Catfish. The distinctive herring bone pattern used in many of Wululu’s work represents the bones of the Eel-Tailed Catfish. The design is also painted on people and objects for ceremonies, as well as on common objects such as dilly bags and spear throwers to make them more powerful. Jimmy Wululu went to school at the mission on Milingimbi, one of the Crocodile Islands in the Arafura Sea just offshore from the Arnhem Land coast. He belonged to the second generation to grow up on the mission, yet most, including Wululu, still went through an intense Aboriginal education independent of their exposure to Christianity and European ways. Many of his extended family moved from their spiritual homeland, Djiliwrri, to live more permanently at the mission. After the Second World War and before his Djapi (first initiation) Wululu and some friends walked over 600 kilometers west across Arnhem Land to Darwin, a journey undertaken by many of their generation, and one of the key events of his life. In Darwin Wululu lived and worked with white Australia by day and was involved in complex traditional ceremonial life at night. In the late 1950’s, back in Milingimbi, Wululu began work in the building industry, including work in an innovative scheme using ant-beds to make mud-brick houses. Wululu’s paintings are in the classic Arnhem land tradition, with its use of ochres and sheets of bark, and intricate cross-hatching over the image. Wululu’s experience in the building trade, however, led to his practice, rare in Aboriginal artists, of making preliminary drawings, drafting his images in pencil. His earliest paintings from the 1970’s were naturalistic images of turtles and other animals. His later works moved directly into minimalist body designs abstracted from nature, a development related to his increased involvement in ceremonial life and the sophisticated visual forms to which his more senior ritual status exposed him. Wululu worked as both a painter and builder in the 1960’s and 1970’s, then took up fishing, taking out a commercial fishing license. He was also one of the artists to contribute several bone coffins, made from painted hollow logs, to the ‘Aboriginal Memorial’ installation, made up of 200 burial poles symbolising 200 years of white occupation of Australia, which was part of the 1998 Biennale of Sydney. This exhibition has since toured Europe including the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and is on permanent display at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. In 1989 Wululu travelled to New York to attend the opening of the major exhibition ‘Dreamings’ and participate in related symposiums. In 1989 Wululu won the Rothman’s Foundation Award for the best painting in traditional media at the Sixth national Aboriginal Art Award in Darwin. In 1992, he was the recipient of an Artist Grant from the Aboriginal Art Unit of the Australia Council. In November 1992 Wululu laid out a traditional sand sculpture as part of a joint exhibition with Phillip Gudthaykudthay at the Canberra School of Art. In 1996 he also made another sand sculpture in the forecourt of the Northern Territory’s Legislative Assembly building for the Bougainvillea festival in Darwin. In 1997 Jimmy Wululu was also one of the artists who participated in a series of workshops held in Ramingining, by printmaker Theo Tremblay, during which they produced an important series of prints, “The Ramingining Print Suite’, based on the Wagilag Sisters’ creation story. This workshop represents an unique collaboration by celebrated artists. subjects and themes Niwuda (honey), Djalambu (hollow log), Eel Tailed Catfish. Yathalmarra and Gatji waterholes and associated plant and animal life related to the travels of the Djangkawu Sisters, Niwuda (honey) Djalumbu (hollow log). collections Artbank, Sydney. Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia. Kluge-RuheCollection,Charlottesville,Virginia USA Linden Museum, Stuttgart, Germany. Milingimbi Collection, MECA, Milingimbi Educational and Cultural Association. Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. Museum of Contemporary Art, Ramingining Collection, Sydney. Myer Gatner Collection, USA. > National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. South Australian Museum, Adelaide. The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. The John Kluge Collection, USA. The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. exhibitions Individual exhibitions 1987 The Esplanade Gallery, Darwin. Group exhibitions 1969 Australian Aboriginal Art - The Louis A. Allen Collection, R. H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley. 1972 Australian Aboriginal Art, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago. 1974 Australian Aboriginal Art from the Louis A. Allen Collection, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, California Palace of the Legion of Honor. 1984 Objects & Representations from Ramingining, Power Institute [now MCA], Sydney. 1986 Ramingining Art Exhibition, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT. 1986 The Third National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1988 Dreamings, the art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York. 1988 The Inspired Dream, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, and touring internationally. 1989 Magiciens de la Terre, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. 1989 Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. 1989 The Sixth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1990 l’ete Australien a’ Montpellier, Musee Fabre Gallery, Montpellier, France. 1990 Tagari Lia: My Family, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 -from Australia, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK. 1991 Flash Pictures, National Gallery of Australia. 1991 Canvas and Bark, South Australian Museum, Adelaide. 1992 Collector, Collector Magazine, Le Trianon, Paris. 1992 Ramingining Artists, Gold Coast City Art Centre, Queensland. 1992 Paintings and Sculptures from Ramingining, Jimmy Wululu & Phillip Gudthaykudthay, Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, Canberra. 1992 The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1993 Dimensions: Jimmy Wululu/Phillip Gudthaykudthay, Freemantle Arts Centre, Fremantle. 1993/4 ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark. 1994 Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2, I shall never become a whiteman, 5th Havana Biennial, Cuba, & Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. 1994 Gemaltes Land: Kunst der Aborigines aus Arnhemland, Linden Museum, Stuttgart. 1995 Stories, Eine Reise zu den grossen Dingen, touring, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Museum fur Volkerkunde Leipzig, Haus der Kulteren der Welt Berlin, Ludwig-Forum fur Internationale Kunst Aachen. 1995 The Twelfth National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1996 Abstraction:Signs,Marks & Symbols National Gallery of Australia. 1999 Myer Gatner Collection, USA. 2000 Yolngu Science MCA,Sydney. bibliography Aboriginal Arts Management Association, 1990, Contemporary Aboriginal Art 1990 - from Australia (presented by the Aboriginal Arts Committee, Australia Council and Third. Eye Centre, Glasgow), exhib. cat., Redfern, New South Wales. (C) Allen, L., 1975, Time Before Morning: Art and Myth of the Australian Aborigines, Thomas Crowell Company, New York. Art from the Land:dialogues with the Kluge-Ruhe Collection of Australian Art University of Virginia USA 1999. Brody, A., Krempel, U., Bahr, E., (eds.), 1995, Stories, Eine Reise zu den grossen Dingen, exhib. cat., Landeshauptstadt Hannover Der Oberstadtdirektor Sprengel Museum Hannover and Autoren. Brody A. Stories: Eleven Aboriginal Artists,Works from The Robert Holmes a Court Collection.Craftsman House 1997. Caruana, W., 1987, Australian Aboriginal Art, a Souvenir Book of Aboriginal Art in the Australian National Gallery, Australian National Gallery, Parkes, Australian Capital Territory. (C) Caruana, W. (ed.), 1989, Windows on the Dreaming, Ellsyd Press, Sydney. (C) Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C) Chanin, E., 1990, (ed.), Contemporary Australian Painting, Craftsman House, Roseville, NSW, Australia. Crossman, S. and Barou, J-P. (eds), 1990, L’ete Australien a Montpellier: 100 Chefs d’Oevre de la Peinture Australienne, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France. (C) Groger-Wurm, H., 1973, Australian Aboriginal Paintings and their Mythological Interpretation, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra. (C) Isaacs, J., 1989, Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Weldon Publishing, New South Wales. Isaacs J. Spirit Country: Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Art Hardie Grant Books. Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco 1999. Sutton, P. (ed.), 1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C) 1993, Aratjara, Art of the First Australians: Traditional and Contemporary Works by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Artists, exhib. cat. (conceived and designed by Bernard Luthi in collaboration with Gary Lee), Dumont, Buchverlag, Koln. (C) Martin, J-H, 1989, Magiciens de la Terre, Musee national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris. McCulloch S, Contemporary Aboriginal Art: a guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture Allen & Unwin 1999. The Native Born: Objects and Representations from Ramingining Arnhem Land ed. by Bernice Murphy MCA in association with Bula Bula Arts, Ramingining 2000. Wallace, D., Desmond, M., Caruana, W., 1991, Flash Pictures, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. West, M.K.C., (ed.), 1988, The Inspired Dream, Life as art in Aboriginal Australia, exhib. cat., Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane. 1994, Tyerabarrbowaryaou 2 I Shall Never Become a Whiteman, exhib. cat., Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. (C) |
 region Central Arnhem Land state NT community Ramingining born 1936 c active 1967 language bloc Dhuwala, Yolngu language Gupapuyngu outstation Djiliwirri art centre Bulabula Arts medium Bark painting, ochres on bark, carved and painted hollow log coffin, carving, limited edition prints |
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