Paddy Bedford (circa 1922 – 14 July 2007), aka "Goowoomji", was a

contemporary Indigenous Australian art Contemporary Indigenous Australian art (also known as contemporary Aboriginal Australian art) is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded a ...

ist from Warmun in the Kimberley, and one of eight Australian artists selected for an architectural commission for the Musée du quai Branly.

Life and family

Bedford was born in the East Kimberley around 1922 at a property which gave him his surname –

Bedford Downs Station Bedford Downs, or Bedford Downs Station, is a pastoral lease that operates as a cattle station in Western Australia. It is situated about west of Warmun and north of Halls Creek in the Kimberley region. Both the station and nearby Mount B ...

. The station's owner Paddy Quilty was the source of Bedford's given name, but Bedford's judgement of Quilty was at best forgiving, and could be harsh. Quilty was reputed to have been involved in a massacre of indigenous people in the region before Bedford's birth, and Bedford's response to an invitation to visit Quilty's grave was "Why should I go see that old fucking bastard?".Tony Stephens, "'Millionaire' believer in 'two-way'", (Obituary), ''The Sydney Morning Herald'', 20 July 2007, p. 18. Life for Bedford, like his parents, was hard and shaped by the harsh racial politics of early 20th century Australia. His parents survived but were displaced by incidents that involved the killing of indigenous people. Bedford was at one stage sent to a leprosarium, despite not having leprosy. When he married Emily Watson and had children, the children were taken away to a mission. Bedford, like many of the indigenous men in the Kimberley, worked as a stockman, but was paid in rations. When the law in 1969 required equal pay for black and white alike, station owners responded by laying off their indigenous workforce, including Bedford. He worked for a while on road building, but ended up forced on to welfare by injury. Bedford is survived by an extended family, including two daughters.

Art

Bedford was familiar with body-painting as a young man. He commenced painting on canvas in around 1998, together with other artists from the Warmun / Turkey Creek locality, and encouraged by former gallerist Tony Oliver. Bedford was one several artists who own Jirrawun Arts, a company established to assist the development and sale of works by indigenous artists from parts of the Kimberley. Bedford was the subject of a major catalogue and retrospective at the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), located on George Street in Sydney's The Rocks neighbourhood, is solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting, and collecting contemporary art, from across Australia and around the world. It is ...

in 2006–07. Bedford's art remains among Australia's most collectible and has decorated aircraft as part of

Qantas Qantas Airways Limited ( ) is the flag carrier of Australia and the country's largest airline by fleet size, international flights, and international destinations. It is the world's third-oldest airline still in operation, having been founded ...

’ Indigenous Flying Art series. Bedford's painting is loosely representational of landscape, and was influenced by the work of

Rover Thomas Rover Thomas Joolama (1926 – 11 April 1998), known as Rover Thomas, was a Wangkajunga and Kukatja Aboriginal Australian artist. Early life Rover Thomas was born in 1926 near Gunawaggii, at Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route, in the Grea ...

. Although, like much of central and western ''desert art'', it is strongly influenced by traditional techniques and

iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

, it also addresses black-white relationships and historical events in his country.

References

External links

Paddy Bedford
at the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

Paddy Bedford at the MCA, Sydney
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedford, Paddy Australian Aboriginal artists Indigenous Australians from Western Australia 2007 deaths Year of birth uncertain 1920s births People from Warmun Community

Life and family

Art

References

Further reading

External links