Paddy Bedford

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Paddy Bedford , also called Goowoomji and Nyunkuny , (* 1922 in Paddy Bedford in eastern Kimberley ; † July 14, 2007 ) was an important Aboriginal painter who lived in Warmun and who belonged to the East Kimberley School .

Life

Bedford was named after the owner of Bedford Downs Station, who exclaimed "give him my name" after the birth of his mother. At this rearing station, Bedford, like his parents when he was young, worked as a drover only for food, drink and accommodation. When the Australian government passed the Equal Pay Act for Blacks and Whites in 1969, the owner of Bedford Dows fired all Aboriginal people. He then worked as a road worker for a while before moving his family to Warmun on Turkey Creek . He had two daughters.

plant

Portraits

Bedford had come into contact with body painting as a young man. He painted canvas around 1998, together with other artists from the East Kimberley School . His works deal with the landscape and were influenced by the important painter of this school Rover Thomas . He carried out his work in traditional technique with strong iconographic characteristics; they refer to the relationship between black and white, but also to the country's historical circumstances.

Dance theater

Years before Paddy's birth, there was a massacre near the Bedford Down cattle station in the forced ingestion of poisoned Gija and Warla meat by white settlers after the Aborigines hunted and killed a starving bull. This event went down in history as the Bedford Down massacre. See Bedford's illustration Two Women Looking at the Bedford Downs Massacre Burning Place from 2002.

Little is known that Bedford designed and occasionally performed a dance theater with his friend Timmi Timms on the subject. The songs and the dance performance as well as the story told were recorded by the Neminuwarlin Performance Group and developed into the piece Fire, fire burning bright , which was first performed at the International Arts Festival in Perth in 2002.

Exhibitions

Paddy exhibited in Melbourne , Sydney , Canberra and Darwin , in Europe in Utrecht 2009 and in Cologne 2010:

  • Blood on the Spinifex, Ian Potter Museum of Art in Melbourne (2002-2003)
  • Rhapsodies in Country, GrantPirrie at Art Miami in USA (2002)
  • Land Mark, Mirror Mark, Drill Hall Gallery Australian National University and Columbia State University in USA (2000)
  • Kluge - Ruhe Collection of Aboriginal Art, University of Virginia in USA (2000)
  • Mapping Our Countries, Djamu Gallery, Australian Museum, Sydney (1999–2000)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ FAZ of February 18, 2011, page 33: Traces from abroad. The very old as abstract modernity: The art of the Australian Aborigines in Cologne for an exhibition in the Museum Ludwig , Cologne
  2. ^ Sherman Galleries
  3. ↑ http://www.moragalleries.com.au/pbedford/
personal data
SURNAME Bedford, Paddy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goowoomji; Nyunkuny
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian artist
DATE OF BIRTH 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Paddy Bedford, Australia
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 2007