Paddy Compass Namatbara

Paddy Compass Namadbara (also spelled Namatbara or Nabadbara), skin name Na-Bulanj, was an Aboriginal Australian artist and traditional healer, or marrkidjbu, from western Arnhem land. He was a member of the Alarrdju clan. In the 1940s, he spent much of his time at Oenpelli (present day Gunbalanya), working and occasionally painting. The Methodist mission on Croker Island gave these artists a space for freedom in their artistic expression compared to the mission at Oenpelli. Their works were mostly acquired by collectors seeking works for major public institutions, before the widespread market acceptance that began to occur in the early 1970s. For many years, the work hung in Breton’s studio in the Rue Fontaine, before being transferred to the Pompidou Centre in 2003.

Style Namadbara belongs to what Howard Morphy terms the "Croker Island School" artists, many of whose works are hard for the untrained eye to distinguish from each other. Paintings from this school often consist of elaborate figurative representations of spirit beings and finely-drawn x-ray figures in white silhouette forms, reminiscent of rock painting styles, and Namadbara's works are no exception. The paintings from this time do not feature the rarrk that has since become iconic in Western Arnhem Land art. Namadbara, when asked about this by Lance Bennett, blames it on the artists being lazy, saying crosshatching is "too much work," Namadbara also depicted animals on his bark paintings, such as fish, echidna, and turtles, often depicting the inside of human and animal figures in his paintings so that artists in western Arnhem Land could pass off knowledge of the way animals are prepared for ritual obligations. Namadbara’s early work, Saratoga 1947, is an excellent example of the emphasis on fish and their symbolic significance in western Arnhem Land.

Yirawala’s Influence Yirawala was a leading artist on Croker Island in western Arnhem Land, who had a strong influence on the development of Namadbara’s work in the 1950s and 60s. Yirawala encouraged particular themes in his bark paintings, particularly ancestral spirits, legendary figures, and some form of religion or sorcery. Namadbara adopted these themes and painted his own versions of spirits with distorted spines and the attributes of several different animals. It should also be noted that many of the spirits involved in his paintings were related to sexual matters in traditional Aboriginal society and that the inspiration for Yirawala’s work is derived from rock paintings in the caves of western Arnhem Land.

Legacy Namadbara's fellow community members held him to a high regard, and compared him to Western religious figures. One such ritual that he devised was one involving removing the kidney fat from a live cat and putting it into a tin, after which people would make all sorts of wishes with it by inserting red-hot pieces of wire into the fat. People in the community would wish for all sorts of things, like better housing, food, and work, and many of these wishes eventually came true. After a while, the tin was buried, and houses were built around it before it was moved to Wark after Namatbara died. Identifying Namadbara’s work amplifies the significance of these artworks for contemporary First Nation communities, artists, and their families. On a global scale, it helps audiences better understand the ongoing cultural links to these works and this Australian heritage.

The book Clever Man: The Life of Paddy Compass Namadbara By Ian White is collection of oral narratives about artist and healer, Paddy Compass Namadbara. In 1995, the stories were recorded by Big Bill Neidjie, Bluey Ilkgirr, Jacob Nayinggul, Jim Wauchope, Johnny Williams Snr., Ron Cooper, Thompson Yuludjiri and others. These people are all from Western Arnhem Land and knew or had a personal connection to Namadbara. Until this book, the stories had remained unpublished. This book provides a complete biography of Namadbara's renowned powers of healing, sorcery, spirit possession and visionary knowledge.

Namadbara the Mediator Paddy Compass Namadbara was an integral part of the first commissioned Aboriginal bark paintings and the development of an Aboriginal art market in Gunbalanya, formerly Oenpelli. Namadbara worked intimately with Baldwin Spencer to assemble the first collection of indigenous bark paintings from western Arnhem Land. In fact, Namadbara is the first artist known to have contributed to the Spencer/Cahill Collection in 1912.

Namadbara also painted at the Methodist mission on Croker Island starting in 1941, where he was able to practice more artistic freedom than in Oenpelli working with artists like Nangunyari Namirifali, Yirawala, Midjaw Midjaw. This group of Minjilang artists became trailblazers of modern bark painting in the early 1960s. In 1967, a researcher named Lance Bennett interviewed Namadbara. This technique of painting is drawn from local rock art in the region. He spoke specifically about one of his works that features barramundi, a swamp hen, and a black bream and painted hand stencils. Bennett asked Namadbara to recreate this 1912 painting which is now in The Bennett Collection at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. Namadbara told interviewer that Spencer had the artists create bark paintings on small, transportable bark sheets. This transformed traditional bark-hut paintings into an entirely new form: bark painting.

Auctions There have been 28 works listed for sale by Paddy Compass Namadbara since 1997. Twenty of the works were sold, with a high price of $33,400 for his work Spirit Figures, painted in 1960 and sold in July, 2005. Namatbara’s works are currently held at Queensland Art Gallery, the National Gallery of Australia, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Collections

Art Gallery of Western Australia Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia Los Angeles County Museum of Art Musée du quai Branly Museums Victoria National Gallery of Australia National Gallery of Victoria National Museum of Australia Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art