Curly Bardkadubbu (1924–1987) was a

Kunwinjku The Kunwinjku (formerly written Gunwinggu) people are an Australian Aboriginal people, one of several groups within the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory. Kunwinjku people generally refer ...

artist who was born in the Kamarrang subsection of the Naborn clan of the Marrkolidjban estate on the

Liverpool River Liverpool River is a river in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is the largest of the tidal river systems of northern Arnhem Land, which includes two major tributaries, the Tomkinson and Mann Rivers. Geography The river rises at the ea ...

. He was known for his paintings on eucalyptus bark.

Biography

Not much is known of Bardkadubbu's early life, one reason being the lack of official record keeping and a second being that Bardkadubbu did not start painting until comparatively late in life. Bardkadubbu did not rise to prominence in the art scene until the late 1970s when he was in his mid-forties. In the late 1970s, Bardkadubbu was tutored in painting by Yirawala when they shared an outstation at Table Hill and Marrkolidjban, which both men helped to establish. Being so close to this river may be the cause of Bardkadubbu's best known depictions – Namanjwarre the Crocodile. Later in his life, Bardkadubbu would move to Namokarabu (an estate in the Liverpool River region), where his life would come to an end in the year 1987 at the age of 62 or 63 (the reason his exact age is undetermined is because of the lack of records indicating Bardkadubbu's date of birth and subsequently date of death).

Artistic career

Bardkadubbu’s work was selected for a number of major exhibitions in Australia and abroad, including: ''The Art of Aboriginal Australia'', which toured North America from 1974 to 1976; and ''Aboriginal Art: The Continuing Tradition'' at the

National Gallery of Australia The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in th ...

in 1989. Bardkadubbu entered the first National Aboriginal Art Award, established by the

Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) is the main museum in the Northern Territory. The headquarters of the museum is located in the inner Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin suburb of The Gardens, Northern Territory, The ...

in 1984. In 2013, Bardkadubbu's painting ''Namanjwarre the Estuarine Crocodile'' was included in the exhibition Old Masters: Australia's Great Bark Artists, organized by the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...

Style

Bardkadubbu started painting much later than his contemporaries. Because of this he used large barks (up to a meter in length) to make up for his lack of precision from starting painting later. Most of Bardkadubbu's subjects were animals, specifically

barramundi The barramundi (''Lates calcarifer''), Asian sea bass, or giant sea perch (also known as dangri, apahap or siakap) is a species of catadromous fish in the family Latidae of the order Carangiformes. The species is widely distributed in the I ...

crocodiles Crocodiles (family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant member ...

, and

kangaroos Kangaroos are marsupials from the family Macropodidae (macropods, meaning "large foot"). In common use, the term is used to describe the largest species from this family, the red kangaroo, as well as the antilopine kangaroo, eastern grey ...

- with crocodiles being the most frequent subject over. Yirawala and Bardkadubbu have the same style of infill in that they both leave space between the rarrk.

Northern Land Council logo

The

Northern Land Council The Northern Land Council (NLC) is a land council representing the Aboriginal peoples of the Top End of the Northern Territory of Australia, with its head office in Darwin. While the NLC was established in 1974, its origins began in the strug ...

's logo is derived from Bardkadubbu's painting ''Ngalyod the Rainbow Serpent''. Bardkadubbu allowed the Northern Land Council to modify the painting for their logo; in return he was paid via copyright fee for allowing the council to use his painting. The logo adapted the painting by rotating ''Ngalyold the Rainbow Serpent'' ninety degrees clockwise and changing the water serpent's head. The colors were also slightly enhanced to pop more, but neither the general shape of the water serpent's body nor the interior crosshatching was changed.

Collections

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most import ...

Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), formerly the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, is located on George Street, Sydney, George Street in The Rocks, Sydney, The Rocks neighbourhood of Sydney. The museum is housed in the Stripped Cl ...

Works sold at auction

References

{{Reflist 1924 births 1987 deaths Australian Aboriginal artists Artists from the Northern Territory 20th-century Australian painters