. There’s a lot of
history with dealers who were referred to as ‘carpetbaggers’, who
basically pay as little as possible for as much profi t as they can
make. It still happens today, but nowhere near the extent that it has
in the past. There are art centres that actively say ‘private dealers
are carpetbaggers’, and we take exception to that because we’re
not on massive salaries; we do as much as we can to help the artists.
We work with artists who don’t have access to art centres, or who
want to take control of their own careers.
,
. When we arrive in
the morning we have all sorts of artists coming in, wanting to paint.
It’s not a big space, so we can’t take every artist, but we try to be
fair with giving everyone a little bit of work. Some days we have
a dozen artists, and we’re full after half an hour. Other days, we
don’t have anyone in.
-- . They’re in Country,
they’re speaking in language, they’re surrounded by traditions and
culture; it’s not like an artist builds up their own wealth – what they
earn gets shared with everyone.
. We have paintings worth over , on our wall but we
also have small, a ordable pieces for under , and everything in
between. We pay one-third of the price of the artwork directly to the
artist on the day they paint. We supply the materials and pay all the
bills. Some are beginning to supply us on a consignment basis; they’re
trusting us to sell the art, and we’re splitting that profi t /.
Hopefully in the next decade, we’ll see a lot more artists operating
under that model.
’
’ . After all, Brett Whiteley didn’t
have to [have photos taken of himself] working. We’ve worked withINTERVIEW: CELESTE MITCHELL. ARTWORK:
SEVEN SISTERS DREAMING
, ANDREA ADAMSON TIGER (DETAIL)
around artists but in the last couple of years we have begun
to concentrate on a smaller family of artists. We wouldn’t be here
without Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty. She gave us our name and she’s a
huge part of Yubu Napa. Her sister Kerry hasn’t had the same level of
success but in the last few years, we’ve seen her prices rise. At the
moment, she’s painting exclusively for us. We’ve also got some
up-and-coming artists like Gwenda Turner Nungurrayi, Denise
Johnson and Elsie Granites Napanangka. We like artists who will step
outside their comfort zone and try new techniques and new ways of
telling their stories.
’ ,
. We don’t hover over the artists when visitors are
chatting with them, and people can ask anything they like. What’s your
favourite colour? How much do you get paid? The buyer should ask
the gallery how much the artist will get, listen carefully to the answers,
and trust their gut. I know there are galleries who take o ence at being
asked that question, but if a gallery does get defensive, think twice.
,
. We now have
a team of fi ve so we’re able to branch out. We’ve been busily putting
together an exhibition [held in Melbourne in July] and are planning
another in Adelaide in December.
’ , ’
’
. In we were still coming through the global fi nancial
crisis. Prices were dropping on Indigenous art and we were told we
were crazy, but we’re growing stronger and stronger every year.
I’m also proud that Yubu Napa is starting to gain recognition for the
work we’re doing. We have seen a lot more interest from international
visitors, especially from the US at the moment, with the current story
about Steve Martin and his collection [of Western Desert art] being
exhibited [at New York City’s Gagosian Gallery between May and
July this year]. We even had one of the Hemsworth boys drop by
recently – he’s bought a couple of nice pieces from us. Hopefully his
brothers will get onboard too. yubunapa.comCULTURE |People