Minyma Tjuta

Estelle Hogan, Australian, about 1937 - 2017
Pitjantjatjara
Tjuntjuntjara
Western Desert
Western Australia
Australia

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1999

Acrylic on canvas

Overall: 53 9/16 × 30 11/16 in. (136 × 78 cm)

Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Will Owen and Harvey Wagner

2009.92.87

Geography

Place Made: Australia, Oceania

Period

20th century

Object Name

Painting

Research Area

Painting

Not on view

Label

The Seven Sisters flee across Tjuntjuntjara country in the Victoria Desert of Western Australia. The dramatic contrast of red and blue mark the contours of the land, rather than the sisters’ final destination, the night sky. In referring to the land, Hogan also references the history of this place and the Spinifex people who were forcibly removed in the 1950s for British nuclear tests. This work was part of a successful Indigenous title claim in the late 1990s, the Spinifex Art Project, that returned a large area to their care. In 2000 the Spinifex people were the second group in Western Australia to receive land rights recognition.

From the 2023 exhibition Layered Histories: Indigenous Australian Art from the Kimberley and Central Desert, curated by Amelia Kahl, Barbara C. & Harvey P. Hood 1918 Curator of Academic Programming

Course History

Geography 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2023

Studio Art 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2024

Studio Art 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Winter 2024

Exhibition History

Layered Histories: Indigenous Australian Art from the Kimberely and Central Desert, Amelia Kahl, Curator, 5 August 2023 - 2 March 2024, Citrin Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Provenance

Spinifex Arts Project, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Paddington, New South Wales, Australia (Certificate of Authenticity); sold to Will Owen (1952-2015) and Harvey Wagner (1931-2017), Chapel Hill, North Carolina, March 13, 2001; given to present collection, 2009.

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