Ronnie Jakamarra Lawson

Ronnie Jakamarra Lawson was born in the bush at Rilyi-rilyi around 1930.

He combined a careful dotting technique with firm clear colours and simple, elegant lines and circles. His paintings and prints have simple titles such as Bush Bean, Water, Bush Onion, Men. They have their genesis in the traditions of the Walpiri people of Lajamanu and the north Tanami Desert. Ronnie was a teacher and custodian of the ceremonies: the dances, songs and designs of the Walpiri. These are ancient. In his canvases they seem powerful and concentrated.

“My Dreaming is my painting. I can only do paintings from the Jakamarra and Jupurrula, that’s the right skin. If other men take these paintings or my ceremony there’ll be big trouble. They’s my Dreamings from my father; the same way I can’t use anyone else’s Dreamings or ceremonies …”

“My paintings are important, we do not take these paintings as fun, that’s our business, Blackfella law really important, that’s why we paint. “They tell my life, my story, my family story, they keep that story alive. That story will not finish – my son will take him …”
Ronnie Jakamarra Lawson.

The artist passed away in 2102

Subject & Themes
Bush onion- janmarda, women- Karnta, pituri- bush “tobacco”, mens story.
Collections
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.
Donald Kahn collection, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
The Holmes a Court Collection, Perth.
Group Exhibitions
1983 D’un autre continent: l’Australie le reve et le reel, ARC, Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
1987 Australian Made, Hogarth Galleries, Sydney, NSW
1989, Mythscapes, Aboriginal Art of the Desert, National Gallery of Victoria
1991, Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA
1993, The Tenth National Aboriginal Art Award Exhibition, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin
1994, Dreamings – Tjukurrpa: Aboriginal Art of the Western Desert; The Donald Kahn collection, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich
1994, Power of the Land, Masterpieces of Aboriginal Art, National Gallery of Victoria
Bibliography
Australian Aboriginal Art from the Collection of Donald Kahn, 1991,
Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, USA ; Johnson, V., 1994
The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, East Roseville, New South Wales. (C) ; 1983 D’un Autre Continent: l’Australie le Reve et le Reel, exhib. cat., ARC/Musee d’ Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, France.(C)