"I paint my mother's country, the land where we live, find and prepare our food. I paint the same old stories I heard as a child, only my personal style is different" (Barbara Weir).

Biography

Now considered one of Australia's foremost painters, Barbara Weir's early life was caught up in the tragedy known as the "Stolen Generations". Born in 1945 at Bundy River station near Utopia with an Aboriginal mother (the painter Minnie Pwerle) and an Irish father, she was 'hidden' from the age of two, but at nine years, while collecting water, she was taken by Native Welfare to be fostered out to a non-Aboriginal family - her own family believing she had been killed.
Barbara returned to her own people at Utopia thirteen years later, and had to relearn her original language. She was reunited with her aunt, the exceptional artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c.1910-1996), by whom she had been 'grown up' as a child. Barbara remained in Utopia until 1997 and, apart from her artmaking, played a major role in a successful land rights claim in 1974. In 1985 she became the first woman President of Urapuntja Council. Barbara is a mother of six children and has thirteen grandchildren. She now lives in Alice Springs and Utopia.

The Paintings

"I paint my mother's country, the land where we live, find and prepare our food. I paint the same old stories I heard as a child, only my personal style is different" (Barbara Weir).
The extraordinary new art styles of the women artists of Utopia had already shown themselves in their approach to batik, which was introduced in 1977. Barbara Weir was part of the original group of batik artists given acrylics and canvas by Rodney Gooch in 1989, and she soon developed highly original, sophisticated and contemporary styles of painting. The delicate techniques of dotting and layering of motifs and narrative elements in some of her work gives way to bold, vibrant colours in the gestural Awalye (ceremonial) patterning of other paintings. There are many levels at work here; descriptive, sacred, referential, even historical, and always, in all of the work, a gorgeous aesthetic. Barbara Weir's Dreamings include Bush Berry, Grass Seed, Bush Yam, Bush Plum, and Bush Banana.
Before 1996, when she travelled to Europe to undertake a growing series of painting commissions, her work had been highly sought after, and her reputation has grown greatly in recent years. Her work is held in many major public and private collections.

Sources

Angeloro, Dominique: "Barbara Weir and Friends" , Sydney Morning Herald, Metro, April 2-7 2004
Kleinert, Sylvia & Neale, Margo (eds.): The Oxford Companion to Aboriginal Art and Culture (Oxford University Press, 2000)
Kreczmanski, Janusz B & Birnberg, Margo (eds.): Aboriginal Artists: Dictionary of Biographies: Central Desert, Western Desert & Kimberley Region (JB Publishing Australia, Marleston, 2004)
Larbey, Ausra: "Indigenous Australian artists: Barbara Wier and Ronnie Tjampitjinpa" at Flinders Lane Gallery (http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2004/07/14/32199.html)