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Magani, Mick

(b Gatji Creek, Northern Territory, ?1920; d 1984). Australian Aboriginal painter. He was a member of the Mildjingi clan from the area of Gatji Creek in Central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. He had to leave the Methodist Mission station of Milingimbi after throwing a spear at one of the European staff; he subsequently spent some time in Fanny Bay Jail, Darwin. He later returned to Milingimbi and by the 1950s had become a prolific bark painter. Soon after the government settlement of Maningrida was established in 1957, Magani moved there and became one of the main ceremonial leaders of the community. He later moved back to his birthplace. His immense energy and humour was captured well in David Attenborough’s account of him. His paintings are characterized by the black, red and white triangular-shaped Mildjingi cloud design but display great variety in their figurative content. A typical example is Wongarr Spirits Return to Camp (c. 1965; Canberra, N.G.). His work is well represented in the Ed Ruhe Collection, Lawrence, KS, and in the Australian National Gallery and the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

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  Reproduced by kind permission of Macmillan Publishers Limited, publishers of The Grove Dictionary of Art.
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