Minnie Pwerle

Minnie Pwerle was born in c.1910/1920 and passed away in 2006. She commenced painting in her late eighties and almost instantly became a success story. Just five years into her career as an Aboriginal artist she was listed as one of Australia’s Top 50 “Most Collectable Artists” in the Australian Art Collector. During her brief career her paintings were steadily growing in popularity and demand for her art is as strong as ever.

Minnie had a wonderful and, at times, wild sense of colour. Her brush marks were free and sometimes dry as the acrylic paint was dragged with undiminished energy across the canvas. Minnie’s work centred on Aweyle-Atnwengerrp, that is, women’s ceremonial concerns from her home country.

Other dreaming’s Minnie painted included the bush tomato and the wild desert orange. The fruits of both plants are represented in Minnie’s canvasses by a circular shape.

Also common in her work is a pendulous shape painted with parallel lines. This shape represents the breast of a women which has been painted for the performance of women’s business. In her life as a tribal elder, Minnie had been appointed a ceremonial body painter. Minnie sought to preserve aspects of this important role when she came to do paintings on canvas.

Minnie was one of six children and had seven of her own. Until several years before her death, she had visited Alice Springs only once. In the final years, however, Minnie travelled widely within Australia. She never went overseas.

Minnie Pwerle's first exhibition was in 2000 at Flinders Lane Gallery in Melbourne and many others followed and her works can be found in numerous collections in Australia and overseas and no collection of Aboriginal Art is complete without a Minnie painting.