National Gallery of Australia’s urgent Aboriginal art investigation after white interference claims

The National Gallery of Australia will launch an urgent investigation into whether white assistants painted on Indigenous artworks set to lead its winter showcase.

Senior Indigenous artist Fiona Foley says the leadership of the APYACC needs to ‘fall on their swords’. Picture: Richard Dobson

The National Gallery of Australia will launch an urgent independent investigation into whether white studio assistants painted on Indigenous artworks that are destined for its showcase winter exhibition.

The gallery announced on Monday it would examine the provenance of works in the Ngura Pulka: Epic Country exhibition of APY Lands art, which is scheduled to open in less than nine weeks and has been heavily promoted as ­“entirely” created by the the APY Art Centre Collective’s Anangu painters.

The unprecedented probe follows a four-month investigation by The Australian which uncovered allegations of white hands on black art produced by the collective, and a video of a studio manager painting on the canvas of leading Indigenous artist Yaritji Young, who will be featured in the NGA exhibition.

News of the investigation came amid calls by two senior Indigenous artists for the APYACC management to resign over the allegations. In a statement issued on Monday, the NGA said: “The National Gallery of Australia is concerned at media reports regarding the authorship of works in its forthcoming exhibition Ngura Pulka: Epic Country.

“The National Gallery announces that it is commissioning an independent review of the provenance and creation of the works in the exhibition, to assess provenance authorship and the extent of the ‘hand of assistance’.”

Ramingining artists, Djon Mundine, Bandjalung people, The Aboriginal Memorial, 1987–88, purchased with the assistance of funds from National Gallery admission charges and commissioned in 1987.

The gallery would not answer a range of questions about who would head the investigation, what its terms of reference would be, and how it would conduct such a complex review before the exhibition opened on June 3. It would also not state what it deemed to be unacceptable interference in the making of Indigenous art.

NGA board member Sally Scales, who is a member of the APYACC board and has staunchly defended the authenticity of the collective’s work, will recuse herself from the probe.

The gallery has used Ms Young in its promotion of the exhibition, quoting her attesting to the provenance of the works: “Artists out here are known for being brave and adventurous, we push new ideas while still protecting and keeping our Tjukurpa (sacred ­stories) strong for our children and grandchildren.”

Another of the leading artists featured in the exhibition spoke to The Australian at length about white interference in the APYACC’s studios, but then recanted her story after questions were sent to the collective’s manager, Skye O’Meara, about the allegations.

At least one of The Australian’s sources said on Monday that if she could be guaranteed anonymity, she would be prepared to talk to the NGA’s investigators about white studio staff painting on Indigenous art works. The source claimed that some of the paintings destined to appear in the NGA’s exhibition, Ngura Pulka, would “definitely have had a white hand in them”. She claimed that many of the “big ­ticket” artworks destined for a gallery exhibition or an expensive sale were routinely worked on by white studio staff.

Indigenous artist Fiona Foley, a former member of the Australia Council, said the scandal coming out of the APYACC had the potential to discredit and destabilise the Aboriginal arts sector and declared it was vitally important for the NGA’s investigation to be conducted properly.

“The multiple layers of nepotism, actual and perceived conflicts of interest and allegations of  falsifying authorship have not been satisfactorily responded to by the NGA director Nick Mitzevich, or the NGA council or assistant director Indigenous engagement, Bruce Johnson McLean,” Dr Foley said. “Who will chair and make up the independent review team needs to be clarified? As it stands, it has similar overtones regarding reviews when ‘the police investigate the police’ on matters of misconduct and ethics.”

She added it was important to note the artists had not done anything wrong. “They’ve been forced into a situation that they feel very uncomfortable with because they are being asked to do things that are not part of their traditional dreaming story,” Dr Foley said. “I don’t see them being at fault. It is more like a type of coercion.”

Dr Foley has called for the management of the APYACC to resign in the wake of five artists and six studio staffers alleging to The Australian they witnessed significant interference by white staff in the collective’s studios, including by Ms O’Meara.

In a video obtained by The Australian, white studio manager Rosie Palmer is shown painting on Ms Young’s canvas at Tjala Arts in the remote APY settlement of Amata. In the same video clip her white colleague questioned whether the painting could “do with another rockhole”.

APYACC general manager Skye O’Meara denies she has ever painted on Indigenous artworks.

The APYACC claimed this was an acceptable practice, and described it as “background wash”, however numerous arts centre managers, artists and industry figures saw otherwise.

The NGA has promoted Ngura Pulka as one of the largest and “most significant First Nations community-driven art projects” and stated that all works were “entirely conceived, created, directed and determined by Anangu people”.

The NGA is partnering with the APYACC to put on the exhibition. A spokesperson for the APYACC said in the NGA’s statement: “We welcome the independent review and will fully and openly participate. It is important to all of our artists that there is no question as to the integrity of our process of the creation of our art.”