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Aboriginal Artist of Northern Arnhem land -
Mick Kubarkku
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 Mick Kubarkku has spent his life on small outstations close to waterholes and billabongs, moving camp seasonally to hunt. In recent years he has settled at Kubumi, a community in northern Arnhem Land. Kubarkku has painted for most of his adult life, initially learning from his father, Ngindjalakku, to make paintings for sacred ceremonies and later selling his works through the government settlement of Maningrida. He has a rugged and individual painting style that has changed very little in over twenty years. As an artist he chooses not to adorn his figures with meticulous geometric rarrk, the crosshatching painting technique common throughout Arnhem Land, but prefers a barer, uneven form of crosshatching similar to rock markings found in the country near Kubumi where he lives. Large, uneven dots are often applied to the heads, hands and feet of the artist’s figures as well as the internal division which suggests the backbone. Kubarkku’s crosshatching comprises horizontal, vertical or sloping bands of red ochre, relieved by patches of black dots on white. His Mimi figures are shown as substantial spirits emerging from the rock country. His more recent astronomical paintings are in accord with Kunwinjku iconic conventions. He is one of the few men who remember the old artists of the caves and can give detailed interpretations of the figures and content of the cave paintings. His subject matter and stories are a direct continuation of the cave-art tradition, although his style of image-making is distinctive, particularly the rendition of his figures and crosshatching. His work has a raw, rough, and direct quality, in which the use of white dotted areas on black is a stylistic marker. His cross-hatching is open and unlabored. Kubarkku is recognised as being one of the great living Kunwinjku artists. subjects and themes Common subjects are Ngalyod, Rainbow Serpent, Namarrkon, Lightning Spirit, Namanjwarre, estuarine crocodile, Lorrkon, hollow log coffin, Namorrodo Spirit, Kodjok Bamdjelk pandanus spirit, Bird Moon Dreaming, Yawk Yawk fresh water female spirits, assorted freshwater fish species, lambalk sugar glider. collections Artbank, Sydney. Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide. Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth. Australian Museum, Sydney. Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra. Djómi Museum, Maningrida. NT. Flinders University Art Museum, Adelaide Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. Arnotts Collection, Sydney. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour, Sydney. National Museum of Australia, Canberra. South Australian Museum, Adelaide. The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth. The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, U.S.A. exhibitions Individual exhibitions 1996 Hogarth Galleries, Sydney NSW. Group exhibitions 1982 Aboriginal Art at the Top, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1983 Artists of Arnhem Land, Canberra School of Arts. 1987 A selection of Aboriginal Art owned by the ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, ACT. 1988 Dreamings, the art of Aboriginal Australia, The Asia Society Galleries, New York. 1988 The Fifth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1988 Aboriginal art of the Top End, c.1935 - Early 1970s, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. 1989 A selection of Aboriginal Art owned by the ANU, Drill Hall Gallery, ACT. 1989 A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, Westpac Gallery, Melbourne; Design Warehouse Sydney [through Lauraine Diggins Fine Art] 1990 Spirit in Land, Bark Paintings from Arnhem Land, National Gallery of Victoria. 1993 The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1993/4 ARATJARA, Art of the First Australians, Touring: Kunstammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf; Hayward Gallery, London; Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark. 1994 Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria. 1995 Moon, Rainbow and Sugarbag - The Art of Mick Kubarkku and Bardayal Nadjamerrek, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, and touring. 1995 Willy Jolpa and Mick Kubarkku, Group exhibition at Aboriginal and South Pacific Gallery, Sydney. 1995 The Twelfth National Aboriginal Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin. 1995 NATSI Art Award, Museum & Art Gallery of NT, Darwin. 1995 In the time before morning Jim Davidson collection, National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Vic. 1997 Men of High degree National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Vic. 1998 NATSI Art Award, Museum & Art Galleries of NT, Darwin1999 Art and Place: Collecting Contemporary Art at Northern Territory University, Northern Territoy University Gallery, Darwin NT. 1999 Art and Place: Collecting Contemporary Art at Northern Territory University, Northern Territory University Gallery, Darwin NT. 1999 Spirit Country: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Gatner Myer Collection, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, USA. 2000 Kuninjku Cosmology Aboriginal & Pacific Arts, Sydney. bibliography 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. 1993. Art from the land: dialogues with the Kluge-Ruhe Collection, University of Virginia 1999. Caruana, W., 1993, Aboriginal Art, Thames and Hudson, London. (C) Diggins, L. (ed.), 1989, A Myriad of Dreaming: Twentieth Century Aboriginal Art, exhib. cat., Malakoff Fine Art Press, North Caulfield, Victoria. Gamarada Art Gallery of NSW Catalogue 1996. Isaacs J: Spirit Country, Hardie Grant Books 1999. McCulloch S, Contemporary Aboriginal Art: a guide to the rebirth of an ancient culture Allen & Unwin 1999. Ryan, J., 1990, Spirit in Land, exhib. cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Sutton, P. (ed.), 1988, Dreamings: the Art of Aboriginal Australia, Viking, Ringwood, Victoria. (C) West, M., (ed.), 1995, Rainbow Sugarbag and Moon, Two Artists of the Stone Country: Bardayal Nadjamerrek and Mick Kubarkku, exhib. cat., Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory. |
 region Central Arnhem Land state NT community Maningrida born 1925 c active 1960 language bloc Bininj kunwok language Eastern Kunwinjku outstation Kubumi, Yikarrakkal art centre Maningrida Arts & Culture medium Bark painting, ochres on bark, carved and painted wooden sculpture, limited edition prints |
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