White painters on Indigenous art ‘common practice’, says Art Gallery of South Australia

The Art Gallery of South Australia has emailed employees claiming white assistants painting on Indigenous canvases is ‘common practice’.

Art Gallery of South Australia director Rhana Devenport. Picture: Tricia Watkinson

The Art Gallery of South Australia has emailed employees claiming white assistants painting on Indigenous canvases is “common practice”, as the husband of a famed artist whose work was interfered with claimed his wife was “really tired” and “that’s why that whitefella was painting on her painting”.

The AGSA has a large collection of paintings produced in the studios of the controversial APY Art Centre Collective and some of those paintings are in the touring exhibition currently in Maitland and destined for Surfers Paradise.

The AGSA email, obtained by The Weekend Australian, and sent to all staff by museum director Rhana Devenport, said it was “common practice for internationally renowned artists, including Aboriginal artists, to have studio assistants that support and enable them to create original works of art”.

It went on to say the gallery had worked with artists from the APY for decades and it “wholeheartedly respects and supports … their Tjukurpa, the ancestral stories passed down through generations … and Anangu are entitled to share their stories in whatever contemporary ways they see fit”.

It also reminded them of their public service code of ethics to refrain from contacting journalists.

The Weekend Australian two weeks ago exposed allegations of interference in work produced through the APYACC, after a four-month investigation that also uncovered video of a white studio manager of the remote South Australian Tjala Arts Centre painting on the canvas of joint Wynne Prize-winner Yaritji Young.

During the investigation, Lisa Slade, deputy director of the AGSA, staunchly defended the collective and insisted there was no way white assistants ever painted on the canvases in its studios.

The April 11 staff email from her boss, Ms Devenport, said: “We are fortunate at the AGSA to know how such contemporary art studios work through our ongoing engagement and regular studio visits … artists are entitled to their own methods of working to achieve their creative outcomes and working with other people doesn’t interfere or change the intellectual property in their work.”

The revelation of the email came as representatives of thousands of Central Desert artists met at the offices of their peak body, Desart, in Alice Springs on Friday to discuss the deepening crisis sparked by the allegations of interference at the collective.

National Gallery of Australia board member Sally Scales, also on the APYACC board, turned up at the Alice Springs meeting but was not permitted to attend.

The Weekend Australian understands the meeting was looking for a positive way forward, and to set clear guidelines for members.

Frank Young, Yaritji Young’s husband, told the meeting, according to several sources, his wife had had “an accident” and was “really tired”, and “that’s why that whitefella was painting on her painting”.

One Anangu person at the meeting said protecting Tjukurpa – sacred stories depicted in the APY art – was the most important issue. An Anangu woman replied: “If Tjukurpa is so important why are these white people painting it.”

The APYACC board and its general manager, Skye O’Meara, have consistently denied white staff ever paint on paintings.

The latest developments come as a growing chorus of Indigenous artists, gallery owners and industry figures calls on Arts Minister Tony Burke to initiate a wider investigation.