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Australian Aboriginal Art - Ray Beamish
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In 1996, Kathleen Petyarre was awarded the prestigious Telstra prize
for her painting Storm in Atnangkere Country. Controversy
erupted in 1997, when Ray Beamish, her former partner of ten years,
revealed that he had been the main painter of the prize-winning
painting and many other paintings attributed to her. The claim was
that an important aboriginal painting had not, in fact, been painted
by an aboriginal artist, but by a Welsh-born white man.
Ms. Petyarre and her attorneys denied the allegations, saying that
although Mr. Beamish had collaborated with her on the paintings, she
was the author and he worked in a minor capacity under her direction.
After their separation, however, Ms. Petyarre has not produced any
paintings in this style, while Mr. Beamish has produced several. This
1997 Water Hole painting by Ray Beamish is one of the first
works he painted after the scandal broke to prove that he was the
author of the prize-winning work.
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Water Hole 1997, acrylic on canvas
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According to newspaper reports, the controversy has been resolved with
Ms. Petyarre acknowledging Mr. Beamish as co-author of the
award-winning painting.
Regardless of who actually painted the disputed painting, both
Ms. Petyarre and Mr. Beamish are accomplished leading Australian
artists.
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The novelty of this style of dot painting is that instead of using a
single size kebab (stick used to paint dots), it uses three different
sized kebabs, as can be seen in the
enlargement to the right. The artist uses the
variation in dot size and the precision of dot placement to achieve a
visual effect. The painting appears to be swirling and swimming before
your eyes. This makes it difficult to look at the painting for more
than a few minutes.
This isn't the only painting in the Kantrowitz collection to use a distinctive
style to achieve a visual effect. The Flying Ant Dreaming
painting by Maxie Tjampitjinpa is
another example. It uses a combination of black and red with white
flicks to achieve a blurring or swarming effect.
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Enlargement of Center of Painting
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