Lin Onus, Motionless Fish, 1995

Lot description

LIN ONUS 1948 - 1996 Motionless Fish, 1995 gouache on illustration board 27 x 62.5 cm; 55 x 86.5 cm (framed) signed front lower right and bears Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi label verso PROVENANCE Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Vic Private collection, Vic Sotheby's, Fine Australian Art Auction, Melbourne, Vic, May 2004, Lot No. 246 Leonard Joel, Indigenous Art, Melbourne, Vic, August 2023, Lot No. 82 Private collection, Qld Onus was born in 1948 in Melbourne, his father belonging to the Yorta Yorta people from the Barmah Forest country. He drew on imagery from this region when he began painting and sculpting in 1974. He created works that were not only distinctly Australian but also expressed what it is like to be an Aboriginal Australian living in an urban environment. Onus was a key figure in raising the profile of Indigenous art, and a leader of the urban Aboriginal art movement. His work is valued as much for its technical skill as for its unique fusion of styles. Onus combined strong socio-political commentary with great artistic expertise, producing art that is political, provocative, and unmistakably his own. Onus's early works conveyed anger at Aboriginal social injustice, but later he embraced humour and whimsy to offer a less confrontational perspective. Perhaps he inherited this sense of humour from his father, Bill. It is said that in the early 1950s, Bill Onus, as President of the Australian Aborigines League, was asked to suggest a suitable Aboriginal name for a new Melbourne community festival. Bill recommended the name ‘Moomba', telling city officials it meant ‘let's get together and have fun'. Onus often spent time with his uncle sitting on the banks of the Murray River, within sight of the Barmah Forest—his spiritual home, the inspiration for many of his later paintings, and ultimately his final resting place. — Ref: Margo Neale, Urban Dingo: The Art and Life of Lin Onus 1948–1996