Old Man Painting - Nyaparu (William) Gardiner

Nyaparu (William) Gardiner

31 July - 15 August, 2020 presented by Salon Art Projects at Tactile Arts 19 Conacher St. The Gardens, Darwin, Northern Territory

FORM and Spinifex Hill Studio would like to acknowledge the Kariyarra, Ngarla, and Nyamal people as the Traditional Custodians of the Port Hedland lands. We recognise their strength and resilience and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people of the local community and recognise their rich cultures and their continuing connection to land and waters.

Warning: Readers should be aware that this document includes names and images of deceased people that might cause sadness or distress to Aboriginal readers.

Salon Art Projects would like to acknowledge the Larrakia People as the Traditional Custodians of the Darwin region which runs from Cox Peninsula in the west to Gunn Point in the north, Adelaide River in the east and down to the Manton Dam area southwards. We recognise their strength and resilience and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We extend that respect to all Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people of the local community and recognise their rich cultures and their continuing connection to land and waters Jack, He can do anything (detail), Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, 122 x 101.5 cm, acrylic on canvas, 2018.

Image courtesy of Spinifex Hill Studio.

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Foreword

FORM, July 2020

Lynda Dorrington, Executive Director

This exhibition celebrates the work of an extraordinary man who lived an extraordinary life. Nyaparu (William) Gardiner (1943-2018) was a station hand, and son of a ringer. He was a husband and a father. A storyteller, a translator, a guitar-playing troubadour.

And importantly, an award-winning artist and illustrator who, through his art, became a devoted chronicler of the Aboriginal impact on a unique time in Western Australia’s pastoral history.

built and sustained Australia’s outback cattle and sheep empires throughout the mid-twentieth century. The men depicted in Mr Gardiner’s art triumph over the undoubted hardships and exhaustion of pastoral work to suggest camaraderie, strength, and sartorial swagger. They are lithe, lean, and poised. Not peripheral, but at the centre of their surroundings, as if they embody the refusal of their compatriots to be dismissed and sidelined.

Together with Mr. Gardiner’s other artistic achievements, encompassing canvases, translations, oral histories and drawings, the artworks in Old Man Painter stand as memorials to these milestone times. Most of the artist’s oeuvre was produced during the last five years of his life, when he became a core member of an Aboriginal artist collective painting out of the Spinifex Hill Studio, managed by FORM, in the Pilbara’s South Hedland.

For Mr. Gardiner lived and worked through decades of social, political and industrial upheaval and change in the north-west of Australia. He was born on the cusp of Australia’s first Aboriginal workers’ strike in the late 1940s, when Pilbara station hands and domestic helpers walked out in protest over conditions and almost non-existent pay.

Despite the ambitions of the Strike, Aboriginal people who followed fathers, mothers and countrymen into station work ― people like Nyaparu (William) Gardiner ― inherited a working environment and employeeemployer relationships that were no less complex than their predecessors had endured. Indeed, in interviews Mr. Gardiner himself would offer a somewhat nuanced evaluation of the Strike and its outcomes. Yet it cannot be contested that the action of the Pilbara workers signified an important and irrevocable move for Aboriginal recognition and autonomy: a concern as relevant today for First Nations peoples throughout Australia.

Spinifex Hill Studio and FORM, along with Nyaparu (William) Gardiner’s family, is thrilled to be sharing his work with national audiences in partnership with Salon Art Projects, known for showcasing some of the country’s most significant contemporary Aboriginal artists.

The works in this exhibition reflect station life in the aftermath of the Strike. They are examples of Mr Gardiner’s affectionate portraiture of men like him: station workers; stalwarts of the pastoral industry; labourers whose sweat and effort

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“I THINK OF MY ART AND THE LIFE THAT I’M LIVING NOW TODAY. WHEN I WAS YOUNGER SOMEONE TELL ME ‘YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING FOR YOURSELF’ AND I REALLY COULDN’T DO ANY PAINTINGS. I HAD TO WAIT UNTIL AFTERWARDS, BECAUSE PEOPLE DIDN’T HAVE ANY MIND ABOUT PAINTING OR DRAWING.” Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, 2017

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OLD MAN PAINTER

“He was a painter too, this old man.

I remember him in the old days, the working days. He passed away now.

This man, and all these people I paint, are from my memory from the old days.

A lot of them were working around Moolyella, like this fella now.”

Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, 20151 “William’s eyes lit up when I mentioned Sam [Fullbrook]. He told me that as a boy he watched Sam paint in the spinifex-thatched studio, and remembered Sam encouraging him to draw. But William did not begin painting at this time.”

John Cruthers, 20172 In August 2016 Nyaparu (William) Gardiner (1943-2018) met curator and art advisor John Cruthers in a darkened convention hall as part of the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair. Gardiner was in Darwin after his portrait Starting the 1946 Strike was selected for the 33rd NATSIA Awards, and he was huddled within a three-by-three metre stall for the Spinifex Hill Artists. The chance meeting with Cruthers illuminated a formative experience for Gardiner as a young man. Cruthers, who had championed the work of Sam Fullbrook (1922-2004) and was well-versed in the history and context of the 1946 Pilbara Strike, had been the one to connect the dots and ask the right question at the right time.

By Greg Taylor

Whether the subject of Gardiner’s 2015 portrait titled Old Man Painter is Fullbrook himself is uncertain. However, what was now clear is that the act of painting on canvas, and perhaps a tradition of ‘bushman painting’, was introduced to Gardiner at an early age. During an interview in May 2017, Gardiner said that “when I was younger someone tell me ‘you can’t do anything for yourself’ and I really couldn’t do any paintings. I had to wait until afterwards because people didn’t have any mind about painting or drawing.”

It was indeed a long delay, almost an entire lifetime, before Gardiner was able to paint with a continuous routine. There was no doubt plenty of living in the decades in between and plenty of up and back between the Pilbara and the Kimberley regions of Western Australia.

His early years were spent at Yarrie Station and the striker camps at Strelley and Moolyella, before the “education mob” took him to Port Hedland and Perth for schooling. As a young man he ventured north to work on Myroodah Station, where he met his future wife Nyangulya Nalgood.

While starting a family, Gardiner oscillated between communities and cattle stations of the Pilbara and Kimberley before he found employment as a language worker and

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illustrator with Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre. His work culminated in 2006 with the publication of his own life story.

Old Man Painter is Gardiner’s third solo exhibition and his first since 2017. The twenty-two artworks in this exhibition represent the first substantial release of his artworks since his death in November 2018.

In that time Gardiner’s stature has grown with posthumous recognition at the 36th NATSIA Awards and a major collection exhibited and acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia as part of Tarnanthi 2019.

The aesthetic and subject matter in this exhibition are an extension of what audiences have already seen from Gardiner. His male subjects appear youthful, able-bodied and work-ready though their hands are almost always empty. Their postures and gestures seem to be suspended, almost like an idle and muted pantomime. While the Strike was an important early movement for Aboriginal self-determination, the atmosphere created by Gardiner’s portraits suggest the lives of many individuals were not made any easier.

Rather than triumphant liberation,

Gardiner presents these times more as a meandering aftermath. It is becoming harder to tell if Gardiner has captured the zeitgeist or has created it, though it seems important to note here that he never sought to speak for anything outside his personal experience. He is telling and showing us how it was for him and his families, the people he saw and the things that he witnessed in those times.

Affectionately known as ‘Old Man’ in his twilight years by wife Nyangulya and his family, the elder Gardiner was at last free to devote his time to building an arts practice. Between 2014 and 2018 Gardiner made over 350 paintings and drawings and contributed a valuable collection of oral histories. His humble daily practice had a magnetism and many family members returned to South Hedland

to spend time with him. His wife, sons Zenith and Gideon, daughters Sheila and Crystal and grandson Delroy all spent time in the studio and have made artwork or developed practices of their own. Along with his artworks, this is another of Gardiner’s legacies.

In partnership with Salon Art Projects, the Gardiner family and Spinifex Hill Studio are very proud to present Old Man Painter.

All Gardiner quotes courtesy of Spinifex Hill Studio 1

Cruthers, John. ‘Nyaparu (William) Gardiner: Outside Men’ (exhibition essay). Vivien Anderson Gallery, 2017 2

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Old People 17-1149

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Doing these paintings is how I remember our old people. These pictures I’m showing you are from my memories. It’s a hard life in those days and we had to change a lot in this life. A lot of the time we didn’t get to decide where we went and why we had to leave our families.

We would have to walk some other places, do another thing. When someone is dead and gone, you can’t always tell the story or call his name. I got all these old people up there in my mind. Our culture and language is strong up there too. Yeah, I have some worries. I think of some of my old people. We can’t forget them.

The old people, the law and culture they put us through, my paintings are about remembering them now they passed away.

91.5 x 152 cm Acrylic on linen 11

Warrawagine Stockman 18-825

152.5 x 152.5 cm Acrylic on canvas

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Untitled 17-1224

101.5 x 122 cm Acrylic on linen

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Young Fella 122 x 91.5 cm Acrylic on linen 18-797

I Can’t Call His Name (II) 76 x 51 cm Acrylic on canvas 18-107

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Drifter 51 x 40.5 cm Acrylic on canvas 17-413

Some of the drifters (portraits) I done I used to know them. This is a fella out at Pippingarra, mining place. He used to cart tuckers, you know, flour, sugar, tea, all kinds of things. This is the fella carting tuckers with a couple of young fellas. We were finding the minerals and we’d be happy to see him!

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“NOW WE SHARE OUR INDIVIDUAL STORIES ABOUT LIFE BEFORE, ABOUT THE OLD PEOPLE THAT WE USED TO LIVE WITH. THEY WAS A GOOD PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND WHAT WILL BE FOR US. I CAN SAY WHAT THEY DONE FOR ME WAS THE BEST THING IN MY LIFE. THEY GIVE ME A DIGNITY TO LIVE THE LIFE I WANT TO LIVE. THEY TRAINED ME TO BE WHERE I AM, FOR WHAT I HAVE BECOME. THESE DAYS I ENJOY THE WORK THAT I DO.” Nyaparu (William) Gardiner, 2017

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Tucker Man 61 x 35.5 cm Acrylic on canvas 17-1041

This is one of the people, they got some tucker and tobacco for us.

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One Young Fella 61 x 35.5 cm Acrylic on linen 17-947

Alone Man 35.5 x 61 cm Acrylic on linen 17-927

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Poor Fella 101.5 x 45.5 cm Acrylic on canvas 17-722 All these mens were looking for something, a bullock or a bit of tin. The life was hard.

He was a cattleman and what sort he is now I don’t know. He’s dressed for cattle but he’s got nothing [laughs]! Poor fella!

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Old Man Painter 91.5 x 35.5 cm Acrylic on canvas 15-1259 He was a painter too, this old man. I remember him in the old days, the working days. He passed away now.

This man, and all these people I paint, are from my memory from the old days.

A lot of them were working around Moolyella [a tin field near Marble Bar, Western Australia], like this fella now.

Studio Note: it’s possible that subject of ‘Old Man Painter’ is influenced by the artist’s memories of Sam Fulbrook (1922-2004) whom the artist saw painting in Moolyella in the 1950s.

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Old People 15-272

35 x 50 cm Acrylic on Arches paper 22

Untitled 17-525

91.5 x 35.5 cm Acrylic on canvas 23

Untitled 59.5 x 42 cm Pencil, acrylic paint and ink on paper 16-1289

Young Fella 27.5 x 21 cm Pencil, acrylic paint and ink on paper 16-1275

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Gentle Bloke 59 x 42 cm Pen/pencil drawing 17-952

Jockey 27 x 18 cm Pen/pencil drawing 17-1144

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Jimmy Brown 18-242

61 x 45.5 cm Acrylic on linen

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One of My Family 18-539

91.5 x 61 cm Acrylic on canvas

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Untitled 18-391

122 x 101.5 cm Acrylic on linen 28

Old Fella 18-491

122 x 101.5 cm Acrylic on canvas 29

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Curriculum Vitae

2015 - 2020

Group Exhibitions 2020 This is how we see ‘em, Spinifex Hill Artists Group show, Aboriginal and Pacific Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW 2019 Tarnanthi Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA

Awards 2016 Biggest Mob - the Spinifex Hill Artists, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA 33rd Telstra NATSIA Awards, Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin, NT

36th Telstra NATSIA Awards, Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin, NT

Anything Colours, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT

2018 Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA

2015 We Call It Home - The Spinifex Hill Artists, FORM Gallery, Perth, WA

Paddington Art Prize (finalist), Defiance Gallery, Sydney, NSW

Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA

Black Swan Prize for Portraiture, (finalist), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, WA 35th Telstra NATSIA Awards, Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin, NT Cossack Art Award, Cossack, WA Stockman, Strikers and Sundown, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic Dream Mine Time, FORM Gallery, Perth, WA

Solo Exhibitions 2017 Outside Men, Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne, Vic Old People, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, Qld

Collections

2017 Tarnanthi, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA

Western Australian Museum, WA

Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA

Curtin University, WA

Cossack Art Award, Cossack, WA Hadley Art Prize, Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart, Tas

2018 Best Portrait Award, Cossack Art Award, Cossack, WA 2017 Best Work in a Medium Other than Painting, Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA Best Painting by a Pilbara Indigenous Artist, Cossack Art Award, Cossack, WA Highly Commended, Hadley Art Prize, Hadley’s Orient Hotel, Hobart, Tas 2016 Most Outstanding Work, 2016 Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA

Good Enough! The Art of Spinifex Hill Artists, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT Pujiman, Spinifex Hill Artists and Martumili Artists (Statewide touring exhibition), WA

2019 Best Work on Paper, 36th Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award, Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, Darwin, NT

Art Gallery of Western Australia, WA

Flinders University, SA Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory, NT Art Gallery of South Australia, SA

44th Muswellbrook Art Prize, Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Muswellbrook, NSW

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2015 Best Indigenous Artwork, 2015 Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA

FORM & Spinifex Hill Studio

For fifteen years cultural organisation FORM has worked to support the creative community of Western Australia’s remote Pilbara region. Since 2008 this has included managing the Spinifex Hill Artists, Port Hedland’s only Aboriginal art collective.

From humble beginnings banding together to paint at the local Aboriginal church, the Spinifex Hill Artists have grown into one of Australia’s most dynamic indigenous art centres. The group now regularly participates in major national exhibitions and events, and is represented in significant collections including Artbank, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Beat Knoblauch Collection, Curtin University, Flinders University Art Museum, the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and the Western Australian Museum. Spinifex Hill Artists is unique as a suburban-based art centre representing Aboriginal artists from numerous cultural backgrounds; there is no dominant ‘house style’, rather the Studio supports an eclectic range of art practices in recognition of the diversity of Indigenous experience.

In 2014 with the support of Principal Partner BHP, FORM established the Spinifex Hill Studio in South Hedland as the permanent

Salon Art Projects

home of the Spinifex Hill Artists. With a focus on acrylic painting, artists are given professional support in the preparation, creation and documentation of artwork.

In addition to supporting the core group of around 40 Spinifex Hill Artists, the Studio functions as a creative hub for the broader Pilbara region, accessed by over 100 artists from up to eight Aboriginal language groups each year. In 2020 a substantial expansion project will begin, to accommodate the needs of the artists in response to the growing national and international demand for their work.

Through Spinifex Hill Studio FORM has sought to create a safe, holistic and dynamic environment for artists, which has grown into an important cultural and community place for South Hedland and the wider Pilbara region. Many artists have been able to build esteem and pride through their art making, gain confidence to share stories in a culturally appropriate way, travel outside their home region to attend exhibitions and art fairs, and create new income streams for themselves and their families. Most importantly, Spinifex Hill Studio has supported the artists of the Pilbara in articulating their culture to audiences around Australia and the world, helping build the reputation of the region as a dynamic cultural and artistic centre.

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Originally partnering in 2013 to present the inaugural Salon des Refuses, Darwin based gallerists Paul Johnstone and Matt Ward expanded their vision in 2018 with the creation of Salon Art Projects. The project coincided with the Darwin Festival and presented a suite of exceptional exhibitions at various locations. The overwhelming support of the project from the public, the artists and art centres saw the event repeated in 2019. Almost twelve months later, Salon Art Projects is committed to Indigenous art initiatives across Australia.

Spinifex Hill Studio is proudly supported by Principal Partner

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