Charlie Brinken Newili Wadey Aboriginal artist
Charlie Brinken (Newili) is an aboriginal artist from Wadeye (Port Keats) who painted in the 1960s and 1970s. He is best know for his bark paintings of churinga-like designs and ceremonial scenes.
If you have a bark painting by this artist I would love to hear from you. If you would like to get your bark painting valued or sell
Biography of Charlie Brinken Newili
Charlie was born around 1910 and spoke Murrinh – Thebin language. Very little is available about this amazing artist. He was the guardian of the Ma-Yawa Wangga ceremony. This ceremony is the main Wadeye ceremony for making boys into men by circumcising them. Charlie Brinken was custodian and singer of this custom.
The songs Charlie sung during circumcision is the same as those sung in the mortuary rites. The reference to death is appropriate because in this context an initiates childhood self dies and is reborn as a man. The expression of grief during this ceremony, particularly from the mothers, is as dramatic and heartfelt.
1n 1935 a catholic mission station established at Wadeye. A visiting anthropologist W. Stanner started a long study on aboriginal beliefs. There is little doubt that Charlie would have been one of the people Stanner collected information from. In the early 1950s, the mission encouraged local artists to paint on bark. Charlie now being in his prime and full of ceremonial knowledge became one of the main regular artists.
Charlie painted sporadically for a period of around 10 years until his death in 1965
Style
Early Port Keats paintings by Charlie Brinken are on oval pieces of bark and reflect the incised designs on churinga. His linework was extremely precise and in many ways similar to an early central desert artist like Kaapa. He often painted churinga designs and surrounded them with more literal imagery.
Design elements relate to those found in western desert paintings. The sets of concentric circles reflect the connections between the coastal peoples to the desert group. Traditional aboriginal oral history also reflects that Brinken’s clan was once from the desert.
These early churinga-like paintings are collectible. Unfortunately compared to early Papunya paintings by artists like Anatjari or Mick Namarari they have far less value. This is despite the similarities in design found on the barks from Port Keats those on board in Papunya. Unlike Papunya barks painted at Port Keats often painted 10 or twenty years earlier did not lead to an art movement. Galleries and collectors often overlook their importance in relation to aboriginal art history.
Charlie Brinken Newili also later painted many literal depictions of the circumcision ceremony. This was a ceremony he was in charge of and would have given him great indigenous status. These barks depict the musicians and dancers along with the important totemic animals and aspects of mythology
Newili is sometimes spelled Newihli
Further reading
Other Port Keats Art and Artists
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Charlie Brinken artwork Images
The following images are of the Artwork of Charlie Brinken Newili. It is not a complete list of his works. They do however give a good idea of the style and above all the variety of this Aboriginal Artist.
