The National Gallery of Australia has launched an independent review into the authorship of an entire display of Indigenous paintings, after media reports alleged that white members of staff at an Aboriginal art center had interfered in their creation.
The review was triggered by a survey published by The Australian in early April, claiming that white employees of Tjala Arts, an indigenous-owned studio on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands, added paint to canvases attributed to prominent indigenous artists. Tjala Arts is part of the APY Art Center collective, which denied the allegations and called them “false and seriously defamatory”.
The Australian obtained smartphone images that appear to show a white director of Tjala Arts painting on the canvas of renowned Indigenous artist Yaritji Young. The newspaper also interviewed Indigenous artists who claimed white employees at the art center interfered with their work.
The National Gallery of Australia has partnered with the APY Art Center Collective to exhibit 28 works by Anangu artists in Ngura Pulka – Epic Country, billed as “one of the largest and most significant First Nations community arts projects to ever be developed”. The show was originally scheduled to open on June 3, but all publicity has stopped pending the outcome of the review, which is due in late May.
The gallery says in a statement that the review “will examine the scope and extent of contributions (if any) that third parties – and, in particular, studio assistants and managers of the APY Art Center collective – have made to the creation of the 28 paintings that form the Ngura Pulka exhibition, with the ultimate aim of assessing whether these works were made under the creative control of the artists to whom they are attributed”.
An independent committee will undertake the review. The two examiners are Colin Golvan, a Melbourne lawyer specializing in intellectual property law, and Shane Simpson, a lawyer and recognized expert in arts, entertainment, cultural property and copyright law. They will be advised by two First Nations experts: Yhonnie Scarce, a Kokatha and Nukunu artist, and Maree Meredith, a Bidjara woman and Vice-Chancellor for Indigenous Leadership at the University of Canberra.
“The panel will determine whether the paintings can be properly described as having been made under the creative control of those named as artists and will make recommendations to the Director of the National Gallery on the findings,” the gallery said.
“These are big cultural, artistic and economic issues, and we are happy to be part of the conversation, but the National Gallery is not an arbitral body,” says Nick Mitzevitch, director of the National Gallery of Australia. “At this stage, our aim is to ensure the welfare and safety of the artists and to seek independent and expert assistance in assessing the provenance of the 28 works loaned to the National Gallery for Ngura Pulka.”
