{"product_id":"gracie-morton-pwerle-anwekety-bush-plum","title":"GRACIE MORTON PWERLE - Anwekety (Bush Plum)","description":"\u003ch2 style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGRACIE MORTON PWERLE (PWERL)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTITLE: ANWEKETY (BUSH PLUM)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eACRYLIC ON CANVAS\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e88 CM X 147 CM\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eGRACIE HAS SIGNED THE PAINTING AND A PHOTO OF GRACIE WITH HER ARTWORK WILL BE PROVIDED.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eREF#GM517\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eBorn: c.1956-2024, Utopia, Northern Territory\u003cbr\u003eLanguage: Alyawarre\u003cbr\u003eKnown as: Gracie Morton Pwerl, Gracie Pwerle Morton, Gracie Pwerl Morton, Gracie Purle Morton, Gracie Morton\u003cbr\u003eDreamings: Bush Plum (Anwekety, also written Arnwekety, the conkerberry), Women's Dreaming (Awelye), Country\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"mso-ansi-language: EN-AU; mso-fareast-language: EN-AU;\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eGracie Morton Pwerle was born around 1956 at Utopia, roughly 250 kilometres north east of Alice Springs, and she lived there all her life. She was the daughter of the senior artist Myrtle Petyarre, one of the seven sisters known throughout the art world as the Petyarre sisters, so Gloria, Kathleen, Ada Bird, Violet, Nancy and Jean were her aunties. Her own sisters Mary, Rita and Elizabeth paint as well, and her daughters also paint and carry the Bush Plum forward. Gracie was a senior custodian for the Altyerre (Dreaming) and for the wide stretch of country it belongs to, with the responsibility for Bush Plum passed to her through her family under traditional law. She passed away in 2024, and the body of work she left behind is one of the most recognisable to come out of Utopia.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eHer early years were spent living off the land, walking country with the women and gathering bush foods, and that knowledge sits underneath everything she later put on canvas. Her art practice began in the 1970s with the Utopia Women's Batik Group, working dye and wax on silk. Those batiks were taken up early by the Robert Holmes à Court Collection, one of the most significant private collections in the country. When acrylic paint and canvas were brought to the women of Utopia in the late 1980s through the project known as A Summer Project, Gracie moved her designs across to the new medium and kept developing them for the next three decades.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eGracie worked from an aerial perspective, the view of country as it is seen from above, which is how many Utopia artists paint their land. She built her paintings from very fine dots laid down in close, patient layers, shifting the tone slightly from one layer to the next so the surface seems to lift and recede as you move in front of it. The palette is restrained and the effect is quietly three dimensional. Her subject was almost always the bush plum through its seasons, flower to green fruit to ripe fruit, the whole cycle of a plant that feeds and sustains her country.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eDREAMINGS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eBush Plum (Anwekety)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e - The conkerberry is a small hardy shrub of the desert that flowers after rain and carries dark sweet fruit the women gather and eat fresh or dry for later. Gracie painted it from above as fields of dotted colour, each shift in tone marking another stage of the season. The seeds were scattered across the land in the creation era and the plant has been honoured in song and ceremony ever since, so the painting is both a map of where the plum grows and a record of a \u003cu\u003estory held in trust.\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eWomen's Dreaming (Awelye)\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e - Awelye covers the ceremonies the women perform for their country, the body paint designs applied to the chest, shoulders, upper back and thighs, and the singing and dancing that keep the land healthy and the people with it. The lines and tracks that run through Gracie's work follow the paths the women walk to gather food and to come together for ceremony.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eCountry\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e - Gracie painted the land she was born into and never left, the sandhills, soakages and open plains around Utopia. Seen from above it is an ancient country, worked over by wind and water for longer than anyone can measure, and her paintings carry the sense of a place that has been read and cared for across countless generations.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eEXHIBITIONS AND COLLECTIONS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eGracie exhibited across Australia and internationally from the mid 1980s onward, with her work shown in Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and China, and held in public and private collections here and overseas.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eSELECTED EXHIBITIONS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003e2002 Land is Life, Art from Australia, Jagdschloss Granitz, Binz, Ruegen, Germany\u003cbr\u003e2001-02 Recounting the Essence of Life, Art from Australia, Kunstforum HDZ, Bad Oeynhausen, Germany\u003cbr\u003e2001 The Unseen in Scene, Staedtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany\u003cbr\u003e2001 Alliance Francaise de Canberra, Canberra\u003cbr\u003e2000 Mosquito Bore, The Art of the Minimalist, Cairns (solo)\u003cbr\u003e2000 Kunst der Aborigines, Leverkusen, Germany\u003cbr\u003e1999 Alliance Francaise de Canberra and French Embassy, Canberra\u003cbr\u003e1998 Culture Store, Rotterdam, Netherlands\u003cbr\u003e1998 Dreamings, Spazio Pitti Arte, Florence, Italy\u003cbr\u003e1996 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1994 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1994 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1993 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1992 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1991 8th National Aboriginal Art Awards, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin\u003cbr\u003e1991 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1989-91 Utopia, A Picture Story, Tandanya National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide; The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Cork and Limerick, Ireland; Meat Market Gallery, Melbourne\u003cbr\u003e1989 Utopia Women's Paintings, The First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney\u003cbr\u003e1986 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003cbr\u003e1985 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre for the Arts, Alice Springs\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eCOLLECTIONS\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eRobert Holmes à Court Collection, Perth\u003cbr\u003eBeher Collection, Reimers Foundation, Deidesheim, Germany\u003cbr\u003eAboriginal Art Museum, the Netherlands\u003cbr\u003eSlaughter and May, London\u003cbr\u003ePrivate collections throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and the United States\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cspan lang=\"EN-US\"\u003eThis painting was purchased directly from Gracie and a gallery certificate of authenticity will be provided with the sale.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThis artwork can be hung vertically or horiztonally.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"GRACIE MORTON PWERLE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67522760933421,"sku":null,"price":3000.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0357\/9130\/6797\/files\/GM517-2.jpg?v=1789336030","url":"https:\/\/altyerre.com.au\/products\/gracie-morton-pwerle-anwekety-bush-plum","provider":"Altyerre Aboriginal Art","version":"1.0","type":"link"}