Summary

This painting depicts rows of fish in a style portrayed in an unconventional form.

Physical Description

A single sheet of bark (Stringybark, Eucalytpus tetrodonta) painted with natural pigments.

Significance

This painting is one of maybe three such works by Binyinyuwuy entered in a competition for textile design. It is an interesting example of the way that traditional Aboriginal imagery was inspiring and contributing to design and creative arts in Australia, particularly in the period post-WW2 through to the sixties. The competition was the Leroy-AlcorsoTextile Design Prize, sponsored by Leroy Manufacturing Company Ltd and Silk and Textile Printers Ltd. In 1954, the Flinders Lane label, Leroy, teamed up with Hobart textile printer Alcorso and established an annual textile competition. The aim was to encourage better prints with Australian themes for the local fashion industry. In 1955, twelve entries were received from Milingimbi and Yirrkala missions, and this painting was one of those. Daryl Lindsay and Hal Missingham, then directors of the National Gallery of Victoria and Art Gallery of New South Wales respectively, were judges. The entries also included a carved figure by Tom Djawa and it was selected for inclusion in the top ten finalists from 2,800 entries. Edgar Wells commented that the figurative elements in this work were a response to the idea of making a pattern suitable to print on fabric. While Binyinyiwuy adhered to Yolngu painting conventions in the way he painted the fish, concessions were made in terms of the number of fish and their alignment in rows.

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