About this user
Elizabeth Durack (1915-2000) CMG OBE Hon DLitt was third generation Australian; a descendant of Irish pioneer pastoralists in Queensland and Kimberley, Western Australia.
An artistic talent emerged at an early age and was encouraged by parents and teachers. It was to prove irrepressible.
Influences upon the course of her life and art were wide and diverse. They ranged from the art and literature of Britain and Australia to the works of Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Oriental scrolls and prehistoric rock murals and carvings. Apart from briefly attending art classes at the Chelsea Polytechnic London in 1936, formative years were spent on the family's East Kimberley cattle stations 'Argyle' and 'Ivanhoe'. Involved there with the seasonal rounds of station work, Elizabeth was drawn into the lives of the Ord River Mirriuwong-Gagerrong people as they shared stories of the past — of how the land was formed along with all its features and creatures. It was a milieu far removed from the experiences, training and networking of artist contemporaries in recognised centres of culture.
Over a long working life that spanned seven decades and included 65 solo exhibitions, Elizabeth Durack's art continued to evolve. From initial pen and ink drawings the work acquired a distinctive style notable for its lyrical qualities, sense of movement and empathy with people and landscape. It went on to embrace aspects of impressionism, expressionism and modernism, yet never fell neatly within any established school.
Towards the end of her life, at a time of national turmoil and personal anguish, recollections of life in the north when it was still 'a closed secret' came flooding back. In an extraordinary outpouring of creativity, Elizabeth transformed early memories and experiences via an alter ego in the form of an Aboriginal male, Eddie Burrup. In March 1997 she quietly revealed her 'nom de brush' (in Art Monthly, Australia.) The revelation, abetted by media spin, received hostile reaction from art gatekeepers who denied her gift, condemned her adoption of an alternate name and rejected artworks they had previously acclaimed. In spite of the uproar, Elizabeth continued to paint for Eddie Burrup until her death. In reality she completed an artistic cycle, producing work of unparalleled quality and originality, capturing on paper and canvas, old, lost and half-forgotten worlds — the worlds of the 'Ngarangani — The Time of the Beginning ...'
