DURACK, ELIZABETH (1915-2000)

"A Big Yard Full Of Horses & Foals, Moolabulla" (1978) 
watercolour
101 x 94cm
signed lower left
*acquired from the artist studio, Moolabulla
*private collection, Kimberleys/Tamworth
 
Elizabeth Durack CMG OBE is an infamous Australian Painter. Daughter of Kimberley pioneer, Michael Durack, and sister of famed writer, Dame Mary Durack, Elizabeth was famous for her depictions of Indigenous Australians in Northern W.A., having grown up on numerous cattle stations. She was educated in Perth, but in 1936 relocated to London to study at the influential Chelsea Polytechnic. She returned to Australia, & quickly established herself as a premier painter & illustrator. Her work was notable for the way it combined & reflected both western and aboriginal perceptions of the world. Based for much of her life in remote parts of north & central Western Australia, far from the metropolitan centres of mainstream artistic activity, Durack received stimulus & inspiration from sources quite different from those of her contemporaries, e.g. Dobell, Boyd, Tucker, et al. In recognition of services to art & literature, Elizabeth Durack was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1966 & in 1982, a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG). In 1994 & 1996 Murdoch University & the University of Western Australia conferred upon her Honorary Doctorates of Letters. However, she was an artist not without controversy. In her later life, she begun creating paintings under the guise of Eddie Burrup, an Aboriginal man. This caused great outrage in the art community and particularly the Indigenous community, who believed Durack was mis-appropriating Aboriginal culture & benefitting from it. In some cases, works were removed from galleries in protest. Regardless of these professional missteps, one can't deny Durack's importance & influence as a pioneering female in Australian art history. This stunning work was completed at her studio at Moolabulla Station in the Kimberley region, & comes from a private Tamworth collection.