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Kurtal

Photo: iocolor, Seattle

Kurtal

2005

Ngilpirr Spider Snell

Australian Aboriginal, Wangkajunga people, Fitzroy Crossing, Kimberley, Western Australia, born 1930

Meet Kurtal, a black snake spirit who lives in a sacred waterhole called a jila. This desert spring is the only reliable source of water in all seasons in the artist’s country. Kurtal is the moral protector of the right to use it and the land around it. In ceremonies to honor Kurtal, Ngilpirr Spider Snell carried long black headdresses emulating rain clouds while dancing and singing. When encouraged, Kurtal sends horseshoe-shaped clouds that bring rain. Here, these clouds float above fields dotted with bush onions.
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
83 7/8 x 59 13/16 in. (213 x 152 cm)
Gift of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan
2019.20.14
Provenance: [Aboriginal & Pacific Art, Sydney, Australia]; Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan, Seattle, Washington, 2005
Photo: iocolor, Seattle
location
Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan and Levi Collection, May 31 - Sept. 12, 2012 (Nashville, Tenessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, June 23 - Oct. 15, 2017; Madison, Wisconsin, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Jan. 26 - Apr. 22, 2018; Austin, Texas, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, June 3 - Sept. 9, 2018; Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, Audain Art Museum, Oct. 5, 2018 - Jan. 28, 2019). Text by Pamela McClusky, Wally Caruana, Lisa Graziose Corrin, and Stephen Gilchrist. Cat. no. 33, pp. 118-119, reproduced.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water, Mar. 18 - May 30, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

Learn more about Equity at SAM