Why are these specific artworks the subject of this first monograph? Produced in 2018, the sumptuous paintings, aa is the Kulata Tjuta Kupi Kupi installation, are collaborative artworks. They are reminiscent of the collaborative production process of art in Aboriginal Australia. These major works, in which a variety of Dreaming stories that define the region converge, form cornerstones of the collection that lies at the heart of the Fondation Opale. The Fondation Opale, and its founder and driving force Berengere Primat, has a particularly strong and active relationship with the art centres and the artists of that region of Australia. Several journeys were made to the APY lands in Central Australia. Both paintings, to which respectively several senior women and men collaborated, were commissioned by Berengere Primat and the painting process abundantly documented. These magisterial paintings are testimony to the continuum of culture and intimate knowledge of the land through art. Kupi Kupi, an iteration of the ongoing Kulata Tjuta (many spears in the Pitjantjatjara language) initiated in 2010, is a contemporary and monumental art installation consisting of 1500 spears. It is a metaphor for contemporary Anangu society and the unpredictable direction in which it is moving. All these artworks are testimony to the renewal and relevancy of Aboriginal art in contemporary times. Text in English and French.
AUTHORS: Georges Petitjean is an art historian whose PhD thesis concerned the art found in the deserts of western Australia. His main research interest lies in tracing the path Aboriginal art has taken from its origins right up to the world of international contemporary art. He was the curator of the Museum of Contemporary Aboriginal Art in Utrecht from 2005 to 2017. Since 2017 he has been the curator of the Collection Berengere Primat, one of the foremost collections of Aboriginal art in the world. Lisa Slade is assistant director for art programs at the Art Gallery of South Australia. Her recent curatorial projects include Kulata Tjuta at the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, France; Quilty, a travelling exhibition of the work of Australian artist Ben Quilty; John Mawurndjul: I am the old and the new, as well as curator in 2016 in Adelaide of the Australian Art Biennale. 45 colour illustrations