Queenie Mckenzie, Mary and Joseph, 1997

Lot description

QUEENIE MCKENZIE 1915 - 1998 Mary and Joseph, 1997 ochre on canvas 61 x 91 cm bears artist signature and cataloguing details verso PROVENANCE Warmun Traditional Artists, Western Australia, Cat No. QM0062 Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, New South Wales, Cat No. 8457 The Collection of Dame Marie Bashir AD CVO and Sir Nicholas Shehadie AC OBE, Sydney, New South Wales EXHIBITED Written in the Land: The Life of Queenie McKenzie, Coo-ee Aboriginal Art, Sydney, New South Wales, March 2009. Queenie McKenzie was born c.1930 at the Old Texas station on the Ord River in the north-west of Western Australia. As a young girl, she cooked for the stockmen, tending and riding horses and journeying as they drove cattle across the vast pastoral region of the north. In the 1970s, the establishment of the Warmun community drew families together once more, becoming a cultural focal point within the Kimberley area. Queenie played a leading role in restoring culture and working toward a secure future. Involvement in community affairs led her to experiment with representational art as an educational tool in the local school, where she taught Gija language and cultural traditions. She was encouraged to paint her first artistic experiments by Rover Thomas, with whom she had worked in the stock camps for much of her life. Her portrayal of Mary and Joseph with its starry backdrop is an example of Queenie's 'two way' belief in the Christian gospel as well as her Gija Dreaming.