<>Fitzroy Crossing
Acrylic on velin arches paper, .
76 x 105 cm (30.4 x 42 ins)
Fitzroy Crossing,
in remote north Western Australia, is one of the more recent Aboriginal
communities to emerge as a major artistic force. The work from the Mangkaja
arts centre is now generally considered amongst the most exciting and
vital being produced in Australia. It is unique in its mixture of the
representational and the abstract.
Fitzroy Crossing was one of the cattle centres of the Kimberley. It became
a focus for deracinated Aborigines seeking work in the 1950s. As a result
many different Aboriginal groups have become settled in and around the
small town. They come from different places, have different languages,
and different stories, and something of this diversity is revealed in
their art.
But, more importantly, art has proved a means for them of asserting and
reclaiming their individual cultural identities and their half-lost traditions,
as well as discovering a new sense of living community.
Their pictures not only record the dreamtime stories of their land, but
recall incidents of everyday life in the 'station days' and the present.
These themes provide the work with an undeniable power and integrity,
which sings out amongst the bright colours of the desert landscapes.