Shirley Purdie

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Shirley Purdie
Born1948 (1948)
Mabel Downs station, Kimberley region, Western Australia
NationalityAustralian
Known forPainting
Notable work
Stations of the Cross
Awards2007 Blake Prize for Religious Art

Shirley Purdie is a contemporary Indigenous Australian artist, notable for winning the 2007 Blake Prize for Religious Art. Purdie was born at Gilburn, or Mabel Downs Station, in Western Australia's Kimberley region in 1948, and is a painter at Warmun Community.

Life[]

Purdie was born at Gilburn, or Mabel Downs Station, in Western Australia's Kimberley region in 1948,[1] daughter of Madigan Thomas. She moved to Warmun, not far from her birthplace, where she lives and paints. She is married to artist Gordon Barney.[2]

Ngarrangarni/Totem: Crow

Skin: Nangari[3]

Art[]

Purdie was taught by her mother and by major Kimberley Indigenous artist Queenie McKenzie, two women who were among the first to paint ar Warmun in the early 1980s.[2]

Purdie has won several awards, including the Blake Prize for Religious Art in 2007, for her work Stations of the Cross. This work was washed off the walls of the Warmun Art Centre in the catastrophic floods of March 2007 and when later recovered from beside the creek it was found to have been seriously damaged. The work portrays the Christian iconography of the 14 Stations of the Cross, but also the history of conflict and racial violence in the artist's community in the 1920s and 1930s.[4] Purdie's works are held by major galleries, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia,[5] National Gallery of Australia, which has her 1996 lithograph, Giwiwan – Bow River Country. This print shows the influence of the painting style of major artist Rover Thomas.[2]

Books[]

  • Shirley Purdie: My Story, Ngaginybe Jarragbe, Magabala, 2020 ISBN 9781925936131 – shortlisted for the Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer at the 2020 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards[6] and for the 2021 Children's Book of the Year Award for New Illustrator.[7]

References[]

  1. ^ "Nemalowaling country / dog and kangaroo dreaming 1995". Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art. National Gallery of Australia. 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c Walton, Alexandra (Summer 2007–08). "Franck Gohier Archive". artonview. National Gallery of Australia (52): 46.
  3. ^ "Shirley Purdie". National Portrait Gallery.
  4. ^ "Indigenous work nabs religious art prize". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 29 August 2007. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
  5. ^ "Goowoolem Gijam – Gija plants". MCA Australia. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  6. ^ "WA Premier's Book Awards shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 18 June 2021. Retrieved 26 July 2021.
  7. ^ "CBCA 2021 Book of the Year shortlists announced". Books+Publishing. 30 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
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