Dick Nguleingulei Rock Artist to Bark Artist
Dick Nguleingulei was born around 1920 at Kukadjerri. He grew up in the rock country at the headwaters of the Liverpool River. His style of bark painting remained true to its rock painting origins throughout his life. He was a prolific bark painter who lived in and around Oenpelli during the 1960s and 1970s. The aim of this article is to assist readers in identifying if their aboriginal bark painting is by Dick Nguleingulei. It includes many examples of his work.
If you have a Dick Nguleingulei bark painting to sell please contact me. If you just want to know what your Dick Murramurra painting is worth to me please feel free to send me a Jpeg. I would love to see it.
Nguleingulei preferred using a solid red ochre background. His animals and figures white with details in red and yellow and sometimes black. He was not afraid to leave large areas monochrome. On earlier barks where there is line work, it is intense parallel lines done with great skill and not much cross-hatching. His later works use more cross-hatching and have fewer open spaces.
Nguleingulei figures have a distinctive face shape with large open mouths and eyes at the very top of the head. He has also painted Namarrkon the lightning spirit.
Dick along with Lofty Nadjamerrek and Mick Kubarku was one of the last of a generation of artists that could interpret rock shelter paintings.
Nguleingulie is sometimes spelled Ngulei Ngulei
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Western Arnhem land Artists and Artworks
Dick Nguleingulei Bark painting Images
The following images are not a complete list of bark paintings by Dick but give a good feel for the variety and style of this artist.