Australian Art Collective – Art for Everyone | Australian Aboriginal Art Gallery

Minnie Pwerle

Acrylic on Canvas | Unstretched

120 x 90 cm | C25189

2002

$11,500 AUD

Bush Melon

In Bush Melon, the late Minnie Pwerle delivers a vibrant, intuitive expression of ancestral knowledge and the deep bonds between Country, food, and family. Painted with sweeping, gestural strokes, this work bursts with rhythmic energy—its layered marks in pinks, reds, purples and deep blues echoing the natural forms of bush melons and the terrain where they grow.

The Bush Melon Dreaming belongs to Minnie’s mother’s Country, Atnwengerrp in the Utopia region. The fruit, once abundant in the area, is both a source of nourishment and a powerful symbol of fertility, ceremony, and connection to women’s law. Minnie’s confident lines represent the plant’s vines, fruit, and seeds, mapping a sensory and spiritual relationship with the land.

Renowned for her bold, emotive style, Minnie Pwerle was a key figure in the Utopia art movement. Her works are celebrated for their immediacy, freedom, and cultural authenticity. In Bush Melon, she distills the essence of Country into a pulsating visual language that speaks across generations and continents.