Born May 5 1948 at Yuendumu, and a Warlpiri, Bronson Nelson was one of the younger men who joined the painting group as the art enterprise started to take off in Yuendumu in 1986. His early paintings revealed an original and sophiticated mind. One of Haley’s Comet used a design based on technical drawing in a magazine showing the comet’s trajectory, but incorporating the important Milky Way and Seven Sisters Dreamings. Another entitled Living Together , blended images of the Aboriginal and Northern Territory flag with traditional Dreaming designs and won first prize in the National Aboriginal Art Award in 1986, reveal an original and sophisticated mind. In addition to numerous exhibitions since mid ’86 with Warlukurlangu Artists (of which was co-Chairperson), Bronson also branched out in successful two person exhibitions, the first at Chandler Coventry Gallery in Sydney in 1987 and then in February 1990 at the Dreamtime Gallery as part of the Perth Festival a group show with his wife, Norah Nelson . Such individual 'career’ initiatives are unusual amongst Yuendumu artists, but may be seen as a further dimension of the 'bi-cultural’ facility evident in his paintings. That it was not at the cost of his connections to Warlpiri society is shown by his selection to travel to Paris with five other Warlpiri men, amongst them several of the leaders in the 'men’s business’ at Yuendumu, to create a ground painting installation at the exhibition Magiciens de la Terre at the Centre Georges Pompidou. The trip took place in May 1989 and the painting met with worldwide acclaim. His Dreamings were Wapirti (Small Yam), Yarla (Big Yam), Ngapa (Water), Marlu (Kangaroo), Pamapardu (Flying Ant).
- Writers:
- Johnson, Vivien
- Date written:
- 1994
- Last updated:
- 2011
