MERRMERRJI - QUEENSLAND CREEK, 2004
PADDY BEDFORD
natural earth pigments and synthetic binder on linen
150.0 x 180.0 cm
inscribed verso: title and Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts cat. PB 6 2004.190
Jirrawun Aboriginal Arts, Kununurra
The Estate of Paddy Bedford
William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
Paddy Bedford - Crossing Frontiers, AAMU, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, 28 October 2009 - 11 April 2010
Remembering Forward - Australian Aboriginal Painting since 1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 20 November 2010 - 20 March 2011 Konig, K., Joyce, E. and Wolf, F. (eds),
Remembering Forward: Australian Aboriginal Painting since 1960, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Paul Holberton Publishing, London, 2011, p. 26 (illus.)
Storer, R., Paddy Bedford, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2006, p. 155 (illus.)
Petitjean, G., Hutchings, P., Kofod, S. and De Rooij, M.J., Paddy Bedford - Crossing Frontiers, AAMU, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, 2009, p. 20 (illus.)
copyright courtesy of The Estate of Paddy Bedford
A fundamental purpose of the paintings of Paddy Bedford was to pass on knowledge of the features, geography and sacred narratives connected to his country. His works also convey the more mundane stories about daily life on cattle stations in the Kimberley. ‘Drawn from the artist’s two very different sources of knowledge; historical events and the Ngarranggarni, the parallel time-dimension in which all things were created and the laws of human behaviour were laid down’.1 These two sources form an evolving repertoire of designs or motifs. Bedford often revisited themes and subjects, returning again and again to the stories passed down to him by his family. His paintings are a variation on a theme which Tony Oliver compares to that of a Jazz musician: “The artist revisits the same themes in his paintings creating new arrangements, but their underlying narrative does not alter.”2
Found north-east of Bedford Downs, Merrmerrji - Queensland Creek is located on the Wilson River. The site is characterised by creeks and watercourses running in open land with The Durak Range found to the east and an enclosed escarpment to the south west. It is from the topographical attributes and cultural significance of this environment that Bedford drew his inspiration.
This monumental canvas exemplifies the later and most recognisable period of Bedford’s painting. Here he presents a symbiosis between bold and powerful forms and a harmony of composition. Dominant shapes are reminiscent of rocks or other amorphous features in the Kimberley landscape while filling the open spaces between these forms are lightly embed grey and pink pigments that the artist has added using his ‘wet on wet’ mixture of white and ochres resulting in a surface that emanates a soft luminosity.
1. Petitjean, G., Paddy Bedford - Crossing Frontiers, AAMU, Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art, Utrecht, 2010, p. 35
2. Oliver, T., et al., Rhapsodies in Country, Grant Pirrie, Sydney, 2002
CRISPIN GUTTERIDGE