Portrait of Bungaree
1991
Medium
colour screenprint hand-coloured with watercolour on 4 joined sheets
Measurements
240.5 × 154.6 cm irreg. (image) 241.0 × 160.0 cm (sheet)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased from Admission Funds, 1992
© Juan Davila. Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art
Gallery location
Gallery 10
Level 2, NGV Australia
About this work
In this pastiche of comic, Pop and Latin American art, Juan Davila portrays Bungaree, a First Nations man from Garigal Country who acted as a mediator between early European settlers and Indigenous communities. Bungaree played a key role on several British voyages, including Matthew Flinders’ circumnavigation of Australia between 1801 and 1803. Davila frequently appropriates historical motifs combined with images and stylistic elements drawn from comics, pop culture and Latin American art to create his distinctive iconography. This image is a critique of colonialist representations of First Nations people. The inscription ‘pensée sauvage’ below Bungaree’s giant foot refers to the influential 1962 book The Savage Mind by French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, whose case studies included Indigenous Australians.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Melbourne, Victoria
Edition
ed. 2/6
Inscription
printed in relief (in image) l.c.: PORTRAIT of / BUNGAREE
inscribed in pencil l.l.: 2/6
inscribed in pink paint l.r.: Condorito 1996.
inscribed in pencil l.r.: Juan Davila 1991.
Accession Number
P36-1992
Departments
Australian Prints / Australian Prints & Drawings
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest