Kumantje Jagamara and Imants Tillers collaborate on ‘Metafisica Australe’

Michael Nelson Jagamara, Warlpiri/Luritja people, Australia, b. c.1946 and Imants Tillers, Australia, b.1950 / Metafisica Australe 2017 / Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 72 canvas boards (nos 98450–98521) / 229 x 285cm / Image courtesy: The artists, and Michael Eather, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane

Michael Nelson Jagamara, Warlpiri/Luritja people, Australia, b. c.1946 and Imants Tillers, Australia, b.1950 / Metafisica Australe 2017 / Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 72 canvas boards (nos 98450–98521) / 229 x 285cm / Image courtesy: The artists, and Michael Eather, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane / View full image

Warlpiri/Luritja artist Kumantje (Michael Nelson) Jagamara AM and Imants Tillers have collaborated on 24 artworks together since 2001, and the latest of these, the striking 72-panel painting Metafisica Australe 2017 (illustrated).

The expansive and compelling work holds special meaning, as it reflects on how the artists embarked on a working relationship that developed following Tillers’s use of elements from Jagamara’s milestone painting, Five Stories 1984. Metafisica Australe 2017 is the next chapter in the long-term collaboration between these much-loved Australian artists, and QAGOMA relishes this opportunity to celebrate an important artistic partnership that began nearly two decades ago. Their continuing conversation has a deep resonance with the Gallery’s Australian collection display, highlighting a unique exchange between an Indigenous and a non-Indigenous artist.

Watch: the making of ‘Metafisica Australe’

Kumantje (Michael Nelson) Jagamara AM (seated), Michael Eather and Imants Tillers (right) in Papunya, in a still from ‘Thrown Into This World’ 2017 by Antra Cilinska / © Juris Podnieks Studio, Latvia

Kumantje Jagamara and Imants Tillers ‘Metafisica Australe’

Michael Nelson Jagamara, Warlpiri/Luritja people, Australia, b. c.1946 and Imants Tillers, Australia, b.1950 / Metafisica Australe 2017 / Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 72 canvas boards (nos 98450–98521) / 229 x 285cm / Image courtesy: The artists, and Michael Eather, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane

Michael Nelson Jagamara, Warlpiri/Luritja people, Australia, b. c.1946 and Imants Tillers, Australia, b.1950 / Metafisica Australe 2017 / Synthetic polymer paint and gouache on 72 canvas boards (nos 98450–98521) / 229 x 285cm / Image courtesy: The artists, and Michael Eather, FireWorks Gallery, Brisbane / View full image

‘[I]n March 2017, Jagamara . . . painted a larger and highly detailed version of Five Stories on 36 canvas boards as the basis for this, their latest collaboration . . . In April, Imants Tillers went to Papunya to visit Jagamara at his home, viewing, exchanging and discussing the new Five Stories canvas boards. This definitive journey and symbolic meeting became the critical juncture for the making of Metafisica Australe. Between April and July 2017, Tillers completed the work, adding a further 36 boards to the four outer perimeters, amplifying many of the critical elements of Jagamara’s work. In Metafisica Australe, Jagamara’s Five Stories now sits within a communal, but uncompromised, painterly landscape of spiritual enquiry.’ Michael Eather, Director, FireWorks Gallery


The Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Gallery stands in Brisbane. We pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders past and present and, in the spirit of reconciliation, acknowledge the immense creative contribution First Australians make to the art and culture of this country.

It is customary in many Indigenous communities not to mention the name or reproduce photographs of the deceased. All such mentions and photographs on the QAGOMA Blog are with permission, however, care and discretion should be exercised.

Featured image detail: Kumantje (Michael Nelson) Jagamara AM and Imants Tillers Metafisica Australe 2017

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    Metafisica Australe 2017 (illustrated) is a rich, contemporary symbiosis of the personal, professional and cultural reflections of two great Australian artists. Metafisica Australe is a significant 72-panel painting that is the latest artwork resulting from the collaborative efforts of Kumantje (Michael Nelson) Jagamara AM and Imants Tillers. Simon Wright was present when this important working relationship began nearly two decades ago. Kumantje Jagamara and Imants Tillers ‘Metafisica Australe’ In 2016, when Five Stories 1984 set the highest price ever paid for a painting by a living Aboriginal artist, Michael Nelson Jagamara — a Warlpiri man from remote country near Papunya — became lauded as the new holder of an auction world record. While the record is one measure of success, it does not adequately account for his 40 years of dedication to painting, or to his record of innovation within tradition to evolve new visual forms. 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Kumantje (Michael Nelson) Jagamara AM and Imants Tillers collaborate on Metafisica Australe In person and in public, these two artists appear modest and reserved, storytellers through their art alone. Each is motivated to paint ideas of ‘self’ and ‘place’, in terms of ancestral lineage and origin, as well as being concerned with the selection and placement of signs and signifiers, often borrowed or reproduced, in order to allude to wider narratives. They are also astutely aware of cultural traditions and authorial power. Although they are now highly renowned artists in their own right, the story of ‘their place’ in Australian art is only just beginning to flourish. It is a story borne of a unique set of circumstances that once had them at odds — art worlds apart — but which has since made them counterparts and collaborators. 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