FINE ART PRINTS
Colonising Species
1989/2002 30.2 x 51 cm POA
“In 1989 I carved Colonising Species, symbolizing the white European swan, the indigenous black swan, both representing a society, a people, a history, and the land, the people being devoured by the people of Britain and ethnics under the authority of the Crown. The blood symbolizing the fact that after two hundred years of oppression and war against us, the Indigene, peace, justice, human rights, a Treaty still have not eventuated for us. Our art is political. Art has always been an extremely powerful communicator of the human factor in all its inglorious, as well as its glorious manifestations.”
- Kevin Gilbert
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Christmas Eve in the Land of the Dispossessed
1967/1990 45.5 x 63.2 cm
“That picture became very meaningful to me. It’s possibly my most favorite print; the one I emotionally identify with the most. And, of course, that is part of my formative desire to be able to expound, where ever possible, on the Aboriginal situation by what-ever way through art or what-ever form.”
- Kevin Gilbert
Totality
1965/1990 28 x 36 cm POA
“Totality to me is expressing what we are… We, Aboriginal People, are a total being… We are total in that we cannot remove ourselves in identity from trees from land from the environment from the earth from the universe.
It’s a print done more in asserting the totality of the human personality in proper development wit the land, with the sky. I would like to try and represent myself or other human beings, especially Aboriginals, as being one very tiny part in the total universe and I’m trying to this in Totality.
I as a human being am no more important, possibly not as important, as a tree. I am possibly not as important as a rock. A rock, for instance, will gradually erode over the millennia and gradually release particles and minerals into the earth, before gradually merging with the earth. Other animals’ life work in the totality of life can be extremely destructive. Human beings are extremely destructive, unless they understand the totality and how they are only as important as, equally important as, the rocks and trees. They can’t really advance without that totality, without recognizing that totality. You can be a conservationist, or a greenie or a miner; each one of those stands is fairly irrelevant unless you take on the responsibility within the total aspect of all forms of life and creation.”
- Kevin Gilbert
My Fathers’ Studio
1965/1990 28.5 x 35.6 cm POA
“My Father’s Studio was my first lino print. Carved with tools I’d made from a spoon, gem blades, nails on a piece of old, brittle lino off the prison floor, I wanted to show the natural pride and completeness of the Aboriginal artist, the cave, the art, the landscape.”
The traditional Aborigine artist never gives a lengthy explanation of his art, or why he pursues it. In questioning him on the subject, the answer is usually terse, direct. “Why? We bin always makim ‘picher’ on rock an’ it all belong ‘Business’.”
- Kevin Gilbert
Lineal Legends
1965/1992 62.5 x 50 cm
“The legend in that is a whole sequence of totemic people.”
- Kevin Gilbert
Corroboree Spirits 1967/1990 36 x 35.5 cm POA
“We have here an Aboriginal group here who are very much a part of the landscape, who are almost submerged within the landscape or slightly submerging out of the landscape, and they’re inseparable from the landscape.” Kevin Gilbert
Bhoolbene Miggai 1969/2022. 68 x 43.5 cm POA
Eaglemen Legend 1967/1990 26.3 x 28.3 cm POA
Black Eagle
Massacre Mountain 1965/1990 26.5 x 31 cm POA
“… a part of the massacres in the time of early colonisation. We’ve got dingoman we’ve got eagleman flying and that was just a reflection of what I was feeling the continual destruction always, always the denial of the Peoples’ right.” Kevin Gilbert
Boothung and Mirrigarng 1967/1990 44 x 28 cm
“Boothung is a Wiradjuri word for Blackfella and Mirrigarng is the Aboriginal word for dog. Blackfella and dog.” Kevin Gilbert
The Nomad 1969/1990 35.5 x 36 cm POA
Eagles at Bay 1967 x 1990 28 x 36 cm POA
“I’d seen some image somewhere that interested me and I thought that I’d do a composition with the eagles and the sea. I was close to the sea at that time." Kevin Gilbert
Mabung 1967/1990 24.5 x 28 cm POA
Wahlo: Tribal Law 1967/1990 35.5 x 36 cm POA
Alcheringa 1969
Lino carvings
Eve in the Garden