The Joy of Fish - The Ripple 1994

LIN ONUS (1948-1996)

Yorta Yorta language group
The Joy of Fish - The Ripple 1994

synthetic polymer paint on canvas
182.5 x 182.5 cm
signed lower right: Lin Onus

Provenance:
The Estate of Lin Onus, Melbourne
Thence by descent, private collection, Melbourne

Exhibited:
Lin Onus: Yinya Wala, Mossgreen, Melbourne, 4-28 August 2016; Jan Manton Art, Brisbane, 9-24 September 2016; Mossgreen, Sydney, 8-30 October 2016

Estimate: $350000 - 450000

Result Hammer: $320000

Despite his untimely death at the young age of 47, William McLintock - ‘Lin’ - Onus AO (1948-1996) remains one of Australia’s most significant contemporary urban artists. Born in Melbourne to Aboriginal and Scottish parents, the Yorta Yorta artist and activist forged a deeply original visual language and practice that continue to distinguish him as a trailblazer and pioneer of Aboriginal contemporary art.(1)

The Joy of Fish – The Ripple 1994 is a quintessential Onus produced at the height of his artistic career. The work showcases one of the artist’s signature upside-down reflected landscapes, demonstrating his exquisite skill and mastery of reflection. Onus’ simultaneous depiction of the water’s surface, the riverbed beneath, and the reflected treescape above result in a seamless blending of foreground, middle ground and background that makes the scene appear both flat and alive with depth, depending on where the viewer’s focus rests.

The work has been finely painted at scale on canvas with synthetic polymer paint, and rendered in Onus’ distinctive blend of Western photorealism and traditional Aboriginal technique and symbolism of his adoptive community near Maningrida in Central Arnhem Land. In it we also see Onus’ favoured and much studied subject matters: fish and the riverbed, as seen in several of his notable works, including Fish, Ferns and Rocks 1995 and Fish And Storm Clouds (Guyi Na Ngawalngawal) 1994.

However, The Joy of Fish – The Ripple also introduces two motifs rarely seen in Onus’ oeuvre that make this work stand out: the female nude and rippled water. In the piece, a naked white female figure lies at a diagonal, almost fully submerged in the shallow water. With hair, toes and left fingers splayed out, her body adopts a relaxed, open pose that sprawls across a significant portion of the canvas, while 12 fish covered in rarrk crosshatching circle her body and criss-cross her form.

Onus completed only a handful of nude works, including two others in the same series, The Joy of Fish – In Waiting 1994 and The Joy of Fish – The Kiss 1994, as well as those portrayed in Ten Little Niggers 1992 and Robyn 1995. A common feature across these works is the diagonal positioning of the female figure’s body, which contrast against the similarly curvy, yet vertical lines of the reflected native bush.

A key difference that sets The Joy of Fish – The Ripple apart is the woman’s gaze. In Onus’ other nudes, the female gaze is fixed directly upon the audience, commanding us to engage with her presence in the landscape. Yet in The Joy of Fish – The Ripple, all attention – including the gaze of the woman, the fish and the audience – is directed towards the single point of disturbance where her touch makes contact with the water’s surface. It is from this single point that ripples begin to spread out across the work, perturbing the calm reflection of the bush above.

The ripple introduces a distinct undercurrent of tension and turbulence within the work that counterbalances the calmness generated by the easy posture of the woman, gentle movement of the fish, and the work’s warm, gentle hues and tones. The fish, with their wideset eyes, almost look frozen in suspense or shock about the disturbance. It is unclear whether her touch should inspire wonderment and curiosity – about the large changes that can be set in motion by one small action, and the physical beauty of the natural environment – or elicit a feeling of unease at how easily the serene and calm of the landscape can be disturbed and altered by her actions. Contrast this with the still serenity of the river scene in Gumiring Garkman 1994 that is maintained despite the fact that water’s surface is being pierced by several frogs. While a rare motif, the ripple effect can be found in other of Onus’ notable works including Fish and Ripple - Dingo Springs II 1995.

The evolution of Onus’s art from his latter period can be traced to his ‘spiritual pilgrimages’ to Arnhem Land that began in 1986, where he formed a deep connection with the local Aboriginal community at Garmedi, near Maningrida.(2,3) It is here that his adoptive father and mentor, Djinang artist and Yulungu Elder, Djiwul ‘Jack’ Wunuwun (1930-1991), who belonged to the Gangarl (Gang-ngal) clan of the Murrungun people of the Dhuwa moiety, embraced Onus and granted him access to his community’s language, law and imagery.(4)

This discovery unlocked a whole new set of vistas… The landscapes I'd always painted are still there; I've just added more. Suddenly everything clicked.(5)

Onus is often described as a self-taught artist. While this is true, especially in regards to the Western European influences and styles in his work, Onus also underwent rigorous training and instruction from Wunuwun. The result was the emergence of Onus’ unmistakable bi-lingual, bi-cultural visual language that so expertly combined Indigenous and Western urban cultures. It is for this reason that Onus is now often referred to as a ‘bridge between cultures.’(6) This skilful of blending of cultures, imagery and meaning is on full display in The Joy of Fish – The Ripple.

Onus enjoyed remarkable success and accomplishment in his career, having been awarded the Order of Australia in 1993, together with numerous other prestigious awards. During his lifetime, his work was widely displayed, exhibited and acquired both domestically and internationally. He was regularly represented by Melbourne-based dealer Gabrielle Pizzi, including at the ACRO Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid in 1991 and 1992.(7)

The artist is represented in the collections of major Australian galleries, including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Internationally, his art is featured in significant collections, such as Bruno Raschle’s renowned collection of Indigenous art, Switzerland, considered one of the most important outside public institutions. To date, there have been at least 18 solo exhibitions and over 40 group shows to his name.

Almost three decades since his premature death, demand for Onus’ works continues to rise, with several of his pieces having made note in recent sales.(8,9) In 2022, Onus's Guyi Bulgabula (Fish and Lily) 1992, another work featuring his characteristic reflected landscape, set the record for the year’s highest priced work for an Indigenous artist at auction.(10)

The Joy of Fish – The Ripple is new to the market, coming, by descent, directly from the Estate of Lin Onus. Sightings of this exemplary piece have been few and far between, having not been on public display since its tour of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne as part of the travelling solo exhibition, Lin Onus: Yinya Wala in 2016

FOOTNOTES

1. Neale, M., ‘Tribute: Lin Onus’, Artlink, 1 March 2000
2. Lin Onus quoted in Neale, M., Urban Dingo: The Art of Lin Onus 1948 – 1996, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, 2000, p.15
3. Hallett, B., ‘Cultural Terrorist with a Deadly Wit’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 10 August 2000
4. Mundine, D., Jack Wunuwun, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, accessed May 2024, https://www.mca.com.au/collection/artists/jack-wunuwun/
5. Lin Onus quoted in Watson, B., ‘Fighting an Artistic Stereotype’, Sydney Morning Herald, Sydney, 6 February 1990
6. McCulloch, S., ‘Noted Aboriginal Artist Dies Suddenly’, The Australian, 25 October 1996
7. Wright, F., ‘Passion, Rich Collectors and the Export Dollar: The Selling of Aboriginal Art Overseas’, Artlink, December 1998
8. Watson, B., ‘Saleroom’, The Australian, 27 April 2024
9. Watson, B., ‘Saleroom’, The Australian, 31 December 2022
10. Coslovich, G., ‘The 10 Top Art Sales in a Bumper Year’, Australian Financial Review, 15 December 2022

Dr Alice Evatt
Dr Alice Evatt (DPhil, MPhil, BA Adv. Hons. (Art History and Theory)) is currently a research fellow at Kellogg College, University of Oxford.

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