February

TIM JOHNSON

Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize 2011

Winner

Tim Johnson is the winner of the $50,000 Arthur Guy Paintung Prize. Selected from a shortlist of 37 artists, Johnson’s winning work, Community Base depicts western desert artists living, creating artworks and being in community.

Tim Johnson describes the painting as showing ‘Western Desert artists such as Clifford Possum and Charlie Tarawa at camp sites with their paintings at Papunya and Kintore. The painting is an acknowledgement of them and their place in art. It puts forward a model of what art can be; a community based model where art is created about a community, by the people who live there. It is presenting ideas and imagery that come from real events and artists who became important in Australian art yet lived in remote communities. Because of my background in conceptual art I am influenced by what these artists have done, and have tried to take on board some of their ideas. I believe they show a way of reaching out beyond your own environment.’