Hector Jandanay

Aboriginal artist Hector Jandanay has been painting in Warmun since the establishment of the Bough Shed school in 1979.

He began painting to relate traditional stories to school children at
the Mirrilingki Catholic Mission in Warmun, a pioneering institution in
the move for cultural resurgence. Jandanay was a communal leader of
this mission and created his own religious philosophy, blending his
ancestral Gija law with the stories of Christ learned from Catholic
missionaries.

His own history includes an amazing story of survival. His grandmother was killed by white people when she was pregnant and died giving birth to Jandanay’s mother; his father was killed by white people soon after he was born. Both of his parents belong to the country that he often paints – Ngarrgooroon – the traditional estate just north of Purnululu.

Hector’s work is known for its restrained use of colour and sombre tones, and his tendency to concentrate on the metaphysical. His subjects vary from minimal depictions of the landscape to mythological interpretations of Dreaming events. He first began printmaking in 1995 in collaboration with printmaker Theo Tremblay.
Collections
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
Group Exhibitions
1991 Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, High Court, Canberra.
1991 The Eighth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1992 The Ninth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin.
1993 Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1994 Australian Heritage Commission National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award Exhibition, Old Parliament House, Canberra.
1994 Power of the Land Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1997 Imaging the Land National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
1997 Contemporary Australian Aboriginal Paintings, Songlines Aboriginal Art Gallery, Amsterdam, San Francisco
Bibliography
Crumlin, R., (ed.), 1991, Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, Collins Dove, North Blackburn, Victoria. (C)
Ryan, J., 1993, Images of Power, Aboriginal Art of the Kimberley, exhib, cat., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
Stanton, J., 1989, Painting the Country: Contemporary Aboriginal Art from the Kimberley Region, Western Australia, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, Western Australia.