The National Gallery of Australia’s independent investigation into allegations of non-Indigenous interference in the works of First Nations artists scheduled for a mid-year exhibition has cleared the APY Art Centre Collective of wrongdoing.
The NGA postponed its mid-year Ngura Pulka – Epic Country exhibition featuring 28 works by the APY artists, following a series of allegations made by The Australian newspaper that white assistants were painting works attributed to acclaimed desert artists at the collective.
The allegations included an edited video purporting to show a young white assistant painting on a large canvas as the award-winning Pitjantjatjara artist Yaritji Young stood watching.
The investigation, conducted by Melbourne silk Colin Golvan, an expert in copyright protection for First Nations art, and Sydney copyright lawyer Shane Simpson, concluded that all 28 paintings that were to be included in the NGA exhibition met the provenance standards of the National Gallery.
“Without exception, the artists to whom we spoke unequivocally told us that the works under review in each case were made by them and expressly denied that there had been any improper interference in the making of their work,” the report said, adding that the word of the artist on attribution was “of utmost importance”.
The role of white assistants, which included canvas preparation and providing background layers to paintings, in consultation with or directed by the artists, were services “appropriate for studio workers and not inconsistent with the artists’ claims of authorship,” the report concluded.
The investigation into the artists was announced by NGA director Nick Mitzevich in April, two months before Ngura Pulka – Epic Country was due to open. The scope of the investigation was restricted to the 28 works by the APY artists that were to constitute the exhibition.
On Wednesday, 43 artists of the APY Art Centre Collective released a joint statement, saying the investigation’s findings had “put things right”.
“The attack on our integrity and our art has been rejected and thrown into the rubbish bin where it belongs,” the statement said.
“When the review panel came to see us, we spoke the truth to them. They carefully looked at the evidence, tested the allegations and have made their findings. Now the truth is there for everyone to see and read.”
The investigators’ report said it received evidence that contradicted the artists’ claims of independent creation, which after careful review were found to have “important inconsistencies”.
Yaritji Young, the artist who became central to The Australian’s allegations and featured in a video published by the newspaper, said her reputation as an artist had been damaged.
“People have said that workers know my Tjukurpa and paint on my canvas in the wrong way,” said the artist, a four-time finalist in the Art Gallery of NSW’s Wynne prize and an eight-time finalist in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art awards.
The Pitjantjatjara concept of Tjukurpa is the interconnectivity between traditional owners’ laws, stories, lands, culture and identity.
“The workers [studio assistants] are ngurpa [culturally naive],” Young’s statement said.
“They don’t know my Tjukurpa. They work for me. I am their boss. No one paints on my canvas the wrong way.”
The report noted that the video published by The Australian was outside the review’s terms of reference, because the artwork being created in the video was not one of the 28 to be included in the NGA exhibition.
“But we note that in the course of the review we were given information as to the context of this edited and brief video,” the report said.
“We were provided with credible information from several sources as to the full context in which the actions captured in the video took place, which may well warrant a reassessment of the widespread condemnation that followed its publication.”
The investigation had been unsuccessful in obtaining an unedited version of the video, which lawyers representing the collective told The Australian in April showed studio assistant Rosie Palmer painting a “background wash” to Young’s artwork.
The Australian’s stories quoted a number of desert artists alleging they had witnessed white APY Art Centre Collective employees, including its general manager Skye O’Meara, painting on First Nations artists’ canvases.
The report said it initially considered the allegations significant, because they appeared to be direct evidence supporting claims of improper conduct concerning some of the paintings, but were not provided with evidence in support of those claims in sworn form.
Given that some of the artists included in the NGA exhibition were among Australia’s most accomplished contemporary artists and had highly recognisable and markedly different individual styles, allegations of white hands on black art (as the series of stories in The Australian were frequently referred to in the media) “assumes a level of quietly practised skill by studio workers which would be extraordinary and to date unknown,” the report said.
The report said the widespread improper conduct suggested in some of the media commentary was, “on its face, at the very least improbable” and that suggestions that the artists had engaged in any cover-up, abandonment of their cultural obligations or dishonest practice by making false claims of authorship in the paintings “had no proper foundation”.
The Guardian has sought comment from The Australian.
A second joint-state investigation, led by the South Australian government is now under way, prompted by the same set of allegations made in The Australian. It is expected to broaden its scope, looking at all art practices within the collective.
In a statement, O’Meara said she believed the state government investigation would further exonerate the collective from any wrongdoing.
“The attack on the integrity of the artists and their work, which has been debunked today, was an opening shot in a deliberate effort to destroy the collective and its significant artistic, cultural and economic achievements,” she said.
“We are stronger today and will emerge stronger again when the SA-led review is completed.”
The NGA said it would work closely with the artists, make programming decisions in due course, and continue to monitor the South Australian government’s review into the APY Art Centre Collective.
