![Minnie Pwerle, Women's Ceremony, 1999](https://artlogic-res.cloudinary.com/w_1600,h_1600,c_limit,f_auto,fl_lossy,q_auto/artlogicstorage/lesliesmith/images/view/75eaad101e687eae6e198b00b02aab76j/smithdavidsongallery-minnie-pwerle-women-s-ceremony-1999.jpg)
Minnie Pwerle Indigenous Australian (Alyawarre/Anmatyerre), 1920-2006
47.8 x 35.4 inch
In this painting Minnie Pwerle depicts the ceremony of the Bush Melon . This is a kind of fruit that is common in Utopia, the area where Minnie is from.
At the performance of the ceremony of the Bush Melon, women sing and dance and are decorated with body paint. During the performing of the dance, the women create long tracks in the sand by the movement of their feet. In her paintings, Minnie depicts these tracks by painting lines in different colours en thickness. Minnie painted several paintings with these patterns, which stand out because of the contrasting use of colour.
Please note that all Aboriginal Art is created from a so called ‘Birds Eye’ view. This means that the paintings can be hung either horizontally as well as vertically.
Provenance
Acquired directly from the artist and family in Utopia in 1995
The Aboriginal Gallery of Dreamings, Melbourne, Australia
Private collection, The Netherlands