Walu

Date2008

Maker Tommy Mitchell Australian Aboriginal, Ngaanyatjarra people, Warakurna, Southwestern Deserts, Western Australia, born 1943

Label TextGreed is being punished in this vivid tornado of paint, which the artist calls “a really sorry story” from an area known as Walu. The painting chronicles the actions of a naughty boy who stole food from the Owl people, but denied it. One day the Owl Men brought back an emu for dinner and the little boy pulled out its heart, spilling blood onto the rocks as he ran away. Due to his misdeeds, the boy was turned into the wind. Looping lines serge with punitive force, and are delicately dotted to remind us of the dissolving fate of the boy who couldn’t contain his urge to steal and deny his transgressions. --Pam McClusky, Curator of African and Oceanic Art, 2012

Object number2019.20.11

Provenance[Alcaston Gallery, Victoria, Australia]; Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan, Seattle, Washington, 2008

Photo CreditPhoto: iocolor, Seattle

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & 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. 23, pp. 2-3, 98-99, reproduced.

Credit LineGift of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan

Dimensions40 x 60 in. (101.6 x 152.4 cm)

MediumSynthetic polymer paint on canvas