Djambalula Old School Oenpelli bark painter
Djambalula is one of the old school original bark painters from Oenpelli. The aim of this article is to assist readers in identifying if their aboriginal bark painting is by Djambalula. It compares examples of his work. He painted in a Western Arnhem Land Oenpelli Bark Painting style
If you have a Djambalula painting to sell please contact me. If you want to know what your Djambalula painting is worth to me please feel free to send me a Jpeg. I would love to see it.
Style
Bark paintings by Djambalula with figures or human beings on them are more popular and valuable. His barks of animals are not highly sorted.
His most valuable works either depict ceremonies or are series of barks. Series of barks were like a book to illustrate a traditional story to initiates. He was very minimalistic in his approach when painting barks. This works very well in some paintings but can look stark in others.
He often depicts figures with either very small eyes or with no eyes at all. The eyes are at the very front of the face.
His art on barks are like art found in Arnhem Land Rock art sites. They are simple but can exude power.
He was amongst the old school of bark painters like Diidja, Naiyomeolmior Spider Nabuna
His animals and birds on bark reflect his clan’s totemic relationships. These include fish, mud crabs, wallaby, snakes, and turtles.
Biography
Djambalula was born around 1910 and died in the early 1960’s. He spoke Maung and was from Yiwaidja cultural area. Along with many other Arnhem Land Artists who did bark paintings, there is not a lot of information available about Djambalula. If anyone knows more information about the biography of Djambalula, please contact me. I would like to add it to this article.
Djambalula is sometimes spelled Jambulula, Djambalulu or Djambalulul
All images in this article are for educational purposes only.
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Western Arnhem land Artists and Artworks
The following images are not a complete list of the artist’s works but give a very good idea of his style and variety.
