David Ross (Pwerle)

David Pwerle Ross was born in 1935 and grew up at Mount Riddock Station. After his fathers death he worked in the woolsheds of the neighbouring stations of MacDonald Downs and Delmore Downs. Several years after his marriage he moved to Utopia, an Aboriginal community north of Alice Springs where he is actively involved in every major ceremony between the Sandover River and the Queensland border. He is recognised as being the ultimate Aboriginal legal authority of this area.

David Pwerle Ross is a most unassuming man, quiet and thoughtful by nature, and very aware of the immense amount of ritual knowledge in his keeping. He is the law man of the eastern Anmatyerre tribal group north-east of Alice Springs – a man of most senior rank whose ceremonial responsibilities at times extends into the activities of the neighbouring Alyawarre and the Eastern Arrernte tribal groups.

David is extremely aware of the changes occurring around him and wants to “put down” his knowledge in a permanent medium as both an aid to teach his maturing sons and for posterity.

His motivation and raw expression of pure traditional design echo the original core artists of Papunya Tula, the community where the contemporary Aboriginal art movement begun in the early seventies. Dave does not like to use too much decorative inventiveness in the background of his paintings as he believes that in keeping with everything being correct, few designs should have any prescribed decorative effect beyond their basic symbols. When he refers to a painting being “flash” he is referring to the total staged effect of the artwork including the ceremony – the decoration of the body, ceremonial objects, head-gear and the accompanying song and dance.
Subject & Themes
Dreaming tracks
Collections
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane.
Individual Exhibitions
1990 Dave Pwerle Ross, Coventry Gallery, Sydney.
Group Exhibitions
1991 Aboriginal Paintings from the Desert, Union of Soviet Artists Gallery, Moscow and Museum of Ethnographic Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1992 Crossroads-Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo.
1992 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs. 1993 Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA; 1994, Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs.
Bibliography
1991 Aboriginal Paintings from the Desert, Union of Soviet Artists Gallery, Moscow and Museum of Ethnographic Art, St. Petersburg, Russia.
1992 Crossroads-Towards a New Reality, Aboriginal Art from Australia, National Museums of Modern Art, Kyoto and Tokyo.
1992 Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs. 1993 Tjukurrpa, Desert Dreamings, Aboriginal Art from Central Australia (1971-1993), Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA; 1994, Central Australian Aboriginal Art and Craft Exhibition, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs.