Tuesday 20 January 2009

Anmatyerre, Australian Spirit or....?





Spring cleaning has its advantages. Among other things, I found several Australian art calendars. One of them is dedicated to the work of Sakshi Anmatyerre. And I hope that you find the pictures as beautiful as I do in spite of the allegations expressed in Daily Telegraph London.


Sakshi Anmatyerre is an Australian spirit, a traveller in this great country, who records the land and its stories, interpreting them in dazzling colours and with the intuitive eye and sure hand of a master painter.In him is the harmonious meeting of cultures, ancient and modern. Through his paintings, which he creates using modern materials and techniques, he expresses his love and respect for these ancient islands, Australia- the people and the wild places and creatures. He is the proud father of three boys and a girl, and to them he passes his wisdom, his lore and his stories.But each startlingly beautiful painting tells its own story and to each person the story is different- it belongs to the beholder alone. But what to think of this article???


"By David Rennie in Sydney
AUSTRALIA'S aboriginal art industry, has been shaken by an allegation that one of its brightest stars, Sakshi Anmatyerre, is in fact an Indian from Calcutta. ABC, Australia's state television station, reported that Mr Anmatyerre had changed his name .Mr Anmatyerre numbers the actor Paul Hogan, the Sultan of Brunei and members of the Packer media dynasty among his clients. His work also appears on a range of best-selling postcards.Leading dealers recently met to discuss a system of authentication and ratings and nominated the Sydney dealer Adrian Newstead to act as their spokesman. Mr Newstead admitted yesterday that, if the allegations about Mr Anmatyerre are true, his paintings, while no less visually appealing than they were before, are now "not worth a brass razoo". (Daily Telegraph London)


ABC is created by Denise Nesbitt. It has been an enormous success. Today we start with the fourth round and the letter A. See more lovely and interesting words starting with A.Click on A,round 4 or on the logo in the sidebar.

45 comments:

Rune Eide said...

The painting looked very appealing and fascinating to me, whoever made them. However, I hope those "art"journalists are as wrong about this as they use to be about a lot of other things.

Richard Lawry said...

very interesting and colorful

An Arkie's Musings

Michele said...

They are amazing pieces of work and are so beautiful to see... I think regardless of where he was born or brought up, he still respects the country and is still showing that with his art, that is all that really matters..

EG CameraGirl said...

GREAT calendar, Wil. Each page has a wonderful piece of art.

My ABC offering is at http://moreofme24.blogspot.com

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

wow R Wil, what a great Sirit very lovely thoughts too....

Happy ABC round 4, mine is here:
www.joannwalraven.blogspot.com

Greetings JoAnn/Holland

anthonynorth said...

An amazing post. Art is art, regardless, I think.

Liz Hinds said...

An interesting story and beautiful colourful pictures.

Jane Hards Photography said...

Art should be encouraged an applauded, just like this post. I always leave here a little wiser and musing your words.

Janice Thomson said...

I agree art is art - does it matter what the nationality? Sounds to me like a lynching mob...
These were fantastic pieces!

Anonymous said...

Beautiful..art is in the eye of the beholder I feel...

Gutsy Living said...

I love color and they remind me of my year living in Belize. Do you have any prints yourself?

Sepiru Chris said...

Hello Reader Wil,

I arrive via Barbara Martin, to check out on the other 10 recipients of her award, today.

I will come back via the follower link because I see why she wanted to showcase you. What an informative, amusing and enjoyable post to read. I love art and I love peccadilloes.

Thanks.

Tschuess,
Chris

photowannabe said...

Very creative and lovely art work no matter about its origins.

naturglede/Randi Lind said...

Very creative!Greate for the A:)

TYRA Hallsénius Lindhe said...

And they thought that my word was hard!
Anmatyerre what does it meen?

Wonderful art you are showing us!

Take care/ Tyra

Miss_Yves said...

De magnifiques peintures ,qui ressembent à du
Batik...

Unknown said...

Very beautiful painting. Truly informative post. Like always! Hope your day is blessed.

spacedlaw said...

I was wondering if this post of the one before was your A post (thank goodness for labels). Interesting.

Carolina said...

Hoi Wil, volgens mij had ik toch alles goed gedaan dit keer. Ik zag mezelf wel terug op de lijst. En ik heb de logo's van de memes waar ik aan meedoe helemaal onderaan mijn pagina staan. Ik heb ook een link gemaakt in mijn blogbericht. Lijkt me best een uitdagende meme om aan mee te doen. Elke keer weer iets origineels bedenken valt niet mee denk ik. Maar ben erg dankbaar voor tips en hulp van ervaren blogmem(b)ers.
Groet'n uut Grun'n

Daniel Chérouvrier said...

Accurate A post.

Carolina said...

nummer 58!

chanpheng said...

Beautiful art, and interesting story. Hope it all works out... truthfully and mindfully.

Gordon said...

An informative post as always; I have learnt quite a lot about my own country from your site. Beautiful artwork; I missed the news about the artist.

Miss_Yves said...

Voulez-vous jouer à un petit jeu organisé par Thérèse ?(blog "Chandler") ,lien à droite sur mon blog-
je vous enverrai un message plus précis à ce sujet un peu plus tard .

Reader Wil said...

Miss Yves'! C'est joli de jouer à un petit jeu, mais... c'est peût-etre trop difficile, si c'est en français. En anglais ce n'est pas un problème. Merci pour l'invitation!

Rose said...

Beautiful images! Does it really matter where he is from? I hope that the interest in his art is not diminished by the controversy over his heritage.

Anonymous said...

Interesting.

Sherrie said...

Hi!
Beautiful!!! What makes the difference if he's Australian or Indian, his work is beautiful!!!!!! Have a great day!!

Sherrie

Carol Murdock said...

Here is a true case of racisum...
What does it matter where he is from ? His work is awesome!

Anonymous said...

It's very beautiful. And I don't understand how a piece of art, valuable one day, can be worthless the next, just because the artist isn't who people thought he was. Either the art is of value, or it is not.

It may have be fraudulent of him to pretend to be an aboriginal Australian (if that allegation is true) but surely the art itself is either good art or not, whatever his name or origins are?

Anonymous said...

Very colorful abstract!

Alan said...

Thanks for the comments on my ABC. You asked about the pieces of cloth in one of the photos: that is next to the ride "Expedition Everest", a roller coaster on and in Mt. Everest with a Yeti, etc. The pieces of cloth area strung up on wires. Evidently the do that in Tibet near the real mountain - I've seen some in photos of base camps and such in National Geographic, etc. Disney is nothing if not very detailed in recreating scenes. They do add a nice bit of color.

magiceye said...

beautiful works of art indeed.
interestingly 'sakshi' in india means 'witness'!

pictureeachday said...

What a strange idea, that this man's artwork is somehow now less valid because of his ethnicity.. that his value as an /artist/ could be based on which country he was born in. It seems to me the more important point should be his interest in representing Australia and its culture. Thanks for sharing these beautiful images and the interesting story.

Also, I love your header image--it's beautiful!

Rinkly Rimes said...

I'd never heard of this artist or the controversy, but I don't think the morals of the affair should affect ones enjoyment of the paintings themselves. I think they're lovely.

antigoni said...

So beautiful colours! I don't know much about art but when i like something i tell it.

Rosie said...

I loved to find out about
Sakshi Anmatyerre the Australian spirit... it is a wonderful story!

Miss_Yves said...

Bonjour, si vous voulez jouer avec nous, la règle est sur mon blog- Post:"détails aléatoires/Random things")

Brenda said...

I would love to own these art pieces. I wonder how I might purchase this calendar. I will search on the internet for it. I watched your slide show first and fell in love with the art work, so the story the journalist wrote meant very little to me. I love to go to Quilt Shows and these reminded me of quilts that I have seen. Each piece had so many things to look at and study. Thanks for posting this!

Dragonstar said...

These are beautiful, intricate works of art. How can anyone justify saying they're worthless? That sort of thing makes me very cross, and it's usually said by people who couldn't even begin to paint themselves. OK, rant over!

On behalf of the ABC team, thanks for joining the fun.

Celeste said...

Beautiful work and an inspired post for 'A'.

ChrissyM said...

What interesting and colorful artwork. I love you post they are always so creative and informative.

Tumblewords: said...

Incredibly colorful and beautiful paintings regardless of the who, when, what or why.

Anonymous said...

glad as ever to see these slidwshows !!

magpie said...

I actually own 3 of his paintings that are on the image gallery. They are spectacular. I know Sakshi very well personally, he is an extraordinary and multi talented person. His paintings are unlike any others I have ever seen.