Lot 322: LINA BRYANS , FACE OF LIRU Oil on composition board

Signed and dated 65 lower right; signed, dated and inscribed with title 'Face of Liru, Olga Range' and 'Face of Liru means place of poisonous snakes' on the reverse Oil on composition board

100.3 by 80.4 cm

Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Pastels by Lina Bryans , Georges Gallery, Melbourne, 1966
Lina Bryans: A retrospective exhibition , National Gallery of Victoria at Banyule Gallery, cat. 68, 21 September - 28 November 1982 (touring exhibition)

G. Forwood, Lina Bryans: Rare Modern 1909 - 2000, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2003, p. 148, illus.

The artist
Private collection, Victoria; purchased from the above in the late 1970s

In 1965 Lina Bryans followed in the footsteps of her former lover and mentor William Frater, travelling and painting in central Australia, anticipating Brett Whiteley, John Coburn, Jeffrey Makin et. al. with paintings of Uluru and Kata Tjuta. It is notable that the titles she gave these works were the Indigenous names, not the 'Ayers Rock' and 'Olgas' then in common usage. This microcosmic abstraction of a rockface at Kata Tjuta she called Face of Liru, a reference to the Anangu poisonous snake dreaming connected to the site. 'While a lone eagle soared overhead, Bryans painted a closer view of the mysterious...rockface, depicting its weird pattern of cavities and lichens, and respecting its ancient heritage' υ1 1. Forwood, G., Lina Bryans: Rare Modern 1909 - 2000, The Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 2003, p. 148, illus.