Lin Onus: The Land Within

This exhibition is on at the Shepparton Art Museum until 13 March 2022. It’s worth a visit. I didn’t know anything about the artist and there were no catalogues left at the art gallery when we visited on the third of February – a good sign as it means there’ve been lots of visitors I suppose. But you can read it online and here. Another, fuller account of his impact on the art world, in which he says he hopes to be seen as a bridge between cultures and technology and ideas, can be found here. Another interesting outline of his legacy can be found on this Victorian Government website.

It’s only a small exhibition and it leaves you wanting to see more. There were both installations (too hard to photograph) and paintings. Here are some of the works on display; quotes are from the accompanying notes and I’ve recorded who was prescient enough to buy them. They are set out here – but not in the exhibition – in the order in which they were painted. These are only a few of the works on display. I wasn’t taking much notice of the chronology while I was looking at them – clearly I like his later work best. Although looking online there are many, many beautiful paintings.

This is one of a series of eight paintings on display; of a total of ten which make up the Musqito Series. It’s on loan from the Aboriginal Advancement League Collection. Onus had his first exhibition at the League in 1975 and the series marks a defining moment in Lin’s interests and painting approach, as he moved away from his beginnings in landscape painting to more overtly political subjects. The subject of the series, Musqito was an early – 19th century Aboriginal resistance warrior from the Eora people, who lead insurgencies against white-settlers. A short biography of Musqito can be found here. Onus depicts him in a heroic and epic manner, fostering a new national mythology akin to Sydney Nolan’s iconic depictions of Ned Kelly. His body is merged and blended into the landscape and its distinct features. It is this connectedness to place that gives Musqito both his strength and cultural authority in the face of colonial forces. I liked this one best – for its ghostliness. I’m not sure I have the title right. The other paintings were titled: The Hangman’s Noose, In Hiding, White Man’s Burden, Dreams in the Garden of Allegation, Escape, (then this one – Final Journey), Tegg’s Legacy, Wanted, One Rope Thrower.

Both of these are from the Lin Onus Estate Collection. They are clearly redolent of family and community time together. I wrote that before discovering that Garmedi outstation in Central Arnhem land was the home of Jack Wunuwun who became Onus’ adoptive father. Onus was also given a traditional skin name and learned about the culture and art of the Yulungu people and was given permission to use aspects of their imagery in his work, including the unique crosshatching technique seen in these, and other Onus paintings.

And here is Jack. This is on loan from the Janet Holmes à Court Collection – always an astute buyer of Aboriginal art. His full name is Elder Djiyal Wunuwun from the Gangarl clan of the Murrungun people of the Dhuwa moiety. He became a formative influence on Lin’s life and art after they met in the late 1970s. … Here Yolnju ceremonial cross-hatched designs, known as Rarrk, stream out from a paint brush held by the Elder, who is rendered in a hyperreal manner. He sits calmly amidst a lively cosmos of spiralling frogs, goannas and butterflies. … [with the] expansive void in the top left-hand corner revealing the Morning Star, an important Wanggarr (original creative spirit) of whose traditional stories [Jack] was a custodian.

This is from a private collection. A wonderful image, highlighting the dry land over which the sea creatures do indeed hover.

This painting is owned by the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Water & the Environment. (I’d be interested to know what else is in their collection). Onus discovered his Yorta Yorta heritage in 1992 which prompted him to return to his origins in landscape painting; a series depicting his father’s Country, the Barmah Forest including this masterly depiction of Country, replete with its Biyala (red river gum) floodplains and freshwater marshes. The wayward jigsaw puzzle pieces … suggest the challenge faced by generations of Aboriginal people to recover missing aspects of their culture and heritage, lost through the processes of colonisation. They also hint at the impossibility of restoring the Biyala forest to what it was pre-colonisation.

This is from the Carillo and Ziyin Gantner Collection. It’s of the Barmah Forest and was painted around the time the Yorta Yorta Native Title proceedings were taking place and Onus was learning about his family’s connection to this place. A tranquil scene reflecting the significance of Barmah Forest to Onus.

This is from the Sidney Baillieu Myer AC Collection. No date is given. It reflects Onus’ merging of ordinary, domestic subjects, Australian landscapes, hyper realism and traditional Indigenous artistic techniques.

These are both from the Lin Onus Estate Collection. They were very large, taking up half an entire wall. Very detailed, and very beautiful.

This is another from the Estate Collection. Hanging it partly in front of a bright yellow wall enhanced the colours. I love the layers so delicately painted – leaves, water, fish plants and reflections. Beautiful.

Another from the Estate Collection; displayed fully against the bright yellow wall. Demonstrating the artist’s versatility; hyper real stones, leaves and dragon-flies (or plants) alongside delicate reflections in the water. Beautiful.

You can see more of Lin Opus’ artworks here. Including his famous sculpture of bats which is indicative of the sculptures on display at Shepparton.

While the Onus exhibition is terrific it’s worth going to Shepparton to see the art gallery which is new; having opened in 2021. Here’s a link to its website.

While we were there we saw a terrific display of work by Albert Namatjira and his associates including family members and his teacher, Rex Battarbee. Amazing sight seeing a whole lot of Namatjira style paintings hung on a huge wall. Too large to photograph.

I was also pleased to see this work by Clarice Beckett.

I’ve been looking out for her work since visiting the Women Artists Know My Name exhibition in Canberra in February 2021 – seems a lifetime ago before Covid put a stop to travel. There was also an exhibition of her work in Adelaide from February to May 2021 that we would have gone to but for Covid. It included a number of paintings owned by Russell Crowe who is a long-term fan apparently. It’s another of those terrible stories about a woman artist completely disdained during her lifetime. She died aged 48 – having caught pneumonia whilst painting on the beach at Beaumaris. Her father burnt a number of her paintings and the rest – about 2,000 – were left languishing to be damaged in an open-sided farm shed in Benalla. She was finally discovered by art curator Rosalind Hollinrake who saved what she could and was instrumental in her being recognised as one of Australia’s foremost avant garde painters. Beckett was fascinated with temporal changes in nature and sought to capture the fleeting sensory impressions of the world around her … her distinctive soft focus and minimal gestural markings convey a strong sense of atmosphere and changing light.

I’ve seen the work of Aboriginal artist Judy Watson before but can’t remember where. I loved this which I originally thought was batik. But it’s a painting on canvas.

It was very large; taking up half a wall. The spine is a reoccurring motif in Watson’s work that references various plants and animals that have provided nourishment to Aboriginal people over generations. It is used as a metaphor for strength and sustenance that Aboriginal women bring to their families. Beautiful, delicate colours. It does look like batik cloth.

In conclusion, I thoroughly recommend a visit to Shepparton to see the Lin Onus exhibition and for a wander around the gallery. You can also drop in to the SPC outlet for some tins of fruit!