Walu
2008
Tommy Mitchell
Australian Aboriginal, Ngaanyatjarra people, Warakurna, Southwestern Deserts, Western Australia, born 1943
Greed 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
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas
40 x 60 in. (101.6 x 152.4 cm)
Gift of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan
2019.20.11
Provenance: [Alcaston Gallery, Victoria, Australia]; Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan, Seattle, Washington, 2008
Photo: iocolor, Seattle